Carbon charges on fuel in N.B. are 600 per cent higher than in N.S. — and rising
CBC
New Brunswick consumers who use diesel faced a price increase for the tenth week in a row Thursday after the province's Energy and Utilities Board raised the legal maximum that can be charged by retailers for the fuel to $1.74.6 per litre.
The price didn't just set a new record for diesel in New Brunswick — it kept prices in the province 10 cents ahead of what is allowed to be charged in Nova Scotia.
That gap is caused by multiple factors but most of it flows directly from a significant difference in carbon pricing between the two provinces.
In New Brunswick the cost of carbon charged to consumers for diesel is 10.73 cents per litre. In Nova Scotia it is 1.5 cents.
Environmentalists contend such wide discrepancies are not a good look for carbon pricing and they're supporting efforts by the federal government to resolve them by 2023.
"We've got to move on a much more consistent and coherent approach," said Louise Comeau, who is the New Brunswick Conservation Council's Director of energy, climate change and energy solutions
At the inception of carbon pricing in Canada provinces were given the choice of adopting their own plans or having a national system imposed on them. Comeau said Ottawa was not especially fussy about consistency from province to province.
"They accepted more flexibility than they knew was prudent at the time," said Comeau.
"The federal government was determined to get every province under the regime in one way or another."
New Brunswick initially ended up in the national program but Nova Scotia opted for a "cap and trade" system that has resulted in consumers paying significantly lower carbon prices.
Carbon pricing first hit fuel pumps in Canada on April 1, 2019. The emission charge on gasoline in New Brunswick started out 4.42 cents per litre, compared to 0.97 cents in Nova Scotia.
That 3.5 cent price difference has since widened to 7.6 cents and will grow further this April when New Brunswick's carbon price on gasoline rises another 2.2 cents.
Diesel contains more carbon per litre than gasoline and carries higher carbon charges as a result.
Depending on the cap and trade price auctions this spring that set prices in Nova Scotia, the cost of carbon in New Brunswick on petroleum for consumers could reach up to nine times what consumers in the neighbouring province are charged.
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