Alberta’s environment minister reiterated in Calgary on Friday that repealing the carbon tax will create thousands of jobs in the province.
Environment Minister Jason Nixon touched on a number of topics during a noon-hour speech to Calgary Chamber of Commerce members, including the first move made by the newly elected UCP government, Bill 1, which eliminated the provincial carbon tax.
“It was one of our platform promises, it’s something that Albertans wanted,” he said.
“It will create an estimated 6,000 jobs and will put money back into the hard families of this province’s pockets.”
The federal government has previously said it will soon replace the fee with its own carbon levy.
Premier Jason Kenney won the April election on a promise to kill the carbon tax, saying it hasn't helped reduce greenhouse gas emissions and took money out of the pockets of working families.
Kenney's government will continue with a tax on large industrial greenhouse gas emitters, and has promised to challenge the constitutionality of the federal carbon tax in court.
Another move highlighted by Nixon was the reduction of the corporate tax rate, which dropped from 12 per cent to 11 per cent on July 1, and will then continue to drop each year until it reaches eight per cent in 2022.
“Making Alberta the most competitive jurisdiction in the country once again,” he said.
“We believe this will create about 55,000 new jobs and grow our province’s economy by an estimated $13 billion.”
He also talked about the Technology Innovation and Emissions Reduction (TIER) system designed to curb greenhouse gas emissions.
