Canadian Cases in Public International Law in 2021

Abstract

The Supreme Court of Canada heard appeals from three provincial references concerning the constitutionality of a federal statute, theGreenhouse Gas Pollution Pricing Act.1 The question was whether Parliament had legislative jurisdiction to enact the law or whether, instead, the law concerned matters of provincial legislative jurisdiction. Saskatchewan, Ontario, and Alberta contended that the first two parts of the Act (establishing a so-called “carbon tax” fuel charge applicable to producers, distributors, and importers and creating a pricing mechanism for industrial greenhouse gas emissions) and its four schedules impermissibly trenched on the legislative competence of the provinces. Canada contended that the Act came within Parliament’s