Industry Advocacy

Allowing Ottawa's carbon tax law to stand would give the federal government a tool it could use to repeatedly chip away at provincial powers, lawyers for the Alberta government argued Monday.

The premier of New Brunswick said Monday he hopes to hear back early in the new year about whether the federal government will sign-off on his province's plan to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from large industrial emitters.Blaine Higgs met with the prime minister Monday morning, the latest - and likely last - of the provincial and territorial leaders to meet face-to-face with Justin Trudeau this year in the wake of the October election.He described the meeting as a cordial get together reflective of a changed tone in federal-provincial relations, a change that's the result of concerted efforts by provinces, territories and Trudeau to renew a national bond strained by the election results.One tangible example of those efforts, said Higgs, was the federal government's decision last week to approve New Brunswick's consumer carbon pricing plan.“Getting that behind us .

Vancouver is bringing in bans on the use of plastic bags, straws and other single-use items, while introducing what the city believes to be a first-of-its-kind fee for disposable cups in the country.

Some of the fees merchants pay on credit card transactions will go down from 1.5% to 1.4% on average starting in April 2020, as a result of an agreement reached by the federal government with Visa and Mastercard last year.

The federal government is giving the Alberta government a passing grade for its industrial carbon tax.

A contract dispute between management and unionized workers at Regina's Co-op Refinery could affect fuel supplies in some parts of Western Canada if a deal isn't reached soon, Saskatchewan's minister of labour said Friday.

Ongoing environmental criticism, delays in building oil pipelines and a surge of separatist sentiment following the last federal election are hurting Alberta's reputation, presenters at a business forum in the Alberta mountain resort town of Lake Louise said Friday.The rise of the western Canadian separation movement or "Wexit'' cost Calgary an opportunity to attract a major technology head office, said CEO Mary Moran of Calgary Economic Development during a speech at the event."We as an organization just lost a 1,000-person company that didn't come to Calgary, selected another city, because they're concerned about Wexit,'' she said.

The federal government says the Trans Mountain pipeline expansion will bring another $500 million a year in corporate tax revenue to be spent on fighting climate change, but the Liberals won't say where they got that number.