In his first few weeks in office, Alberta’s new Premier, Jim Prentice, a former Federal Minister of the Environment, has been speaking out on the province’s approach to regulation of greenhouse gas emissions. Premier Prentice was recently quoted as saying that his government hopes to update the climate change regulatory framework before the end of this year and will outline how Alberta will deal with carbon emissions in the long term. This could include changes to the existing CAD$15 per tonne carbon levy, which is in place until December 31, 2014. In 2007, Alberta became the first jurisdiction in North America to implement carbon reduction legislation. Premier Prentice has stated that Alberta must work in lockstep with the United States in revising its climate change policy.
One of the first steps taken by the Premier was to appoint a senior official to take charge of a reassessment of Alberta’s climate change strategy, including a review of the technology fund run by the Climate Change and Emissions Management Corporation, which has dispensed CAD$234 million to date to 89 projects aimed at reducing carbon.