Canada’s carbon tax is set to increase on schedule in April after the country’s highest court on Thursday upheld the Trudeau government’s environmental policy.

Canada emissions

A six-judge majority on the nine-seat Supreme Court of Canada rejected provincial rights challenges against the levy by the Ontario, Alberta and Saskatchewan governments.

The fossil fuel consumption tax, enacted by the Trudeau government in 2018, increases every year on April 1, the start of the federal fiscal year. Rates track a government formula that calculates a price for carbon emissions. 

This year the deemed price for a ton of Canadian greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) is going up by 33% to C$40/ton ($32).

For consumers, the carbon price translates into 2021 taxes of C6.6 cents/gasoline liter (25...