Manitoba premier wants to work with Ottawa on revisiting carbon pricing

Manitoba Premier Wab Kinew says he wants work with Ottawa on re-examining how carbon pricing is applied in the province but did not share specific details on what that may look like.

“I think that Manitoba has a very strong case to make that the carbon price could be revisited here in our province, and we’re going to be having those conversations with the same sort of constructive, collaborative tone that we’re bringing for this exciting investment today,” Kinew said at a clean aviation fuel announcement in Winnipeg.

The announcement was done alongside federal Energy and Natural Resource Minister Jonathan Wilkinson.

Kinew did not say whether revisiting the policy means he wants to see the $65 per tonne carbon price be adjusted in his province or if this means Manitoba plans on creating its own pricing system.

The federal carbon price will increase to $80 per tonne on April 1. For gasoline, this would mean the carbon price grows from about 14 cents per litre to 17 cents a litre.

British Columbia, the Northwest Territories and Quebec all have their own pollution pricing plans that take the place of the federal backstop, which applies in all regions without a plan that meets federal standards.

This comes after Kinew said Manitoba has a “strong case” to review the federal carbon price’s application in his province on the Jan. 7 episode of The West Block.

“I think that there’s an argument that Manitoba is maybe one of the strongest cases you could make, that the price on carbon should be revisited in our jurisdiction. It’s definitely something that I know Manitobans would like to see some help with,” Kinew toldThe West Block host Mercedes Stephenson in that interview.

The premier emphasized the fact Manitoba’s electricity grid comes