Summary

The bill removes the ability for the Lieutenant Governor in Council to repeal by regulation the provisions that prohibited SaskEnergy from collecting or remitting the federal carbon tax on natural gas for home heating. It also removes a scheduled repeal of those same provisions.

In 2023, Saskatchewan passed a law that stopped SaskEnergy from collecting the federal carbon tax on natural gas used for home heating. That 2023 law included two ways the carbon tax collection ban could be removed: the Lieutenant Governor in Council could repeal it by regulation, or it would automatically repeal itself under certain conditions. This bill eliminates both of those removal mechanisms. The practical effect is to make the ban on collecting the federal carbon tax on home heating more permanent by removing the built-in ways it could be undone. The provisions stopping SaskEnergy from collecting the carbon tax remain in force with no regulatory or automatic sunset.