The Yukon government says it’s pleased that Ottawa has granted an extension to the territory for its federally-imposed carbon pricing mechanism to July 2019.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau unveiled some details of the plan Tuesday in Ontario. He said he is happy that some jurisdictions (like the Yukon) have agreed to the federal pollution pricing system or created their own.

In a statement Tuesday, Premier Sandy Silver clarified that some details announced by the prime minister do not in fact apply to the Yukon, as it “has agreed to work with the federal government on developing a territorial carbon rebate mechanism.”

Instead, the four affected provinces that have decided not to implement their own carbon pricing are those most affected by the announcement.

Details of that rebate plan still seem to be under wraps, at least for now. The Star was told the premier was unavailable for an interview before press time this afternoon.

“We negotiated with the federal government to get the best deal we possibly could for Yukon,” Silver’s statement said of the extension granted.

“In order to allow for proper time for all details to be determined, we worked ... to extend the start date of carbon pricing in Yukon to July.”

He went on to note that it is in part “in recognition of the unique circumstances of Yukon.”

The territory did release a number of figures last April, through an analysis of potential impacts of the tax and a summary of the federal government’s analysis as a background.

Both documents can be found on the Environment department’s webpage (here and here, respectively).

According to those documents, the average cost to a household in the Yukon would be about $260 – but it would steadily increase each year until 2022.

That’s because the tax would rise from $10 a tonne per emission of fossil fuel this year to about $50 a tonne by that time period, increasing by $10 a tone each year.

However, it’s important to note that the timelines for the tax have shifted, the analysis noted, with prices being based off the $10 a tonne price that would have applied for 2018.

But now that it’s set to take effect in 2019, that will bump up to $20. So it is “reasonable to assume that the impact at $10/tonne in 2019 will be approximately double of those figures shown in the study,” it noted.

Silver also explained this past summer that the placer mining industry will be hit less hard through rebates, and the aviation industry will be subject to an exemption.

Meanwhile, Silver has assured at least since this year that the system will not be a revenue generator for the Yukon, with the feds committing to returning all funds to the respective jurisdictions.

As it’s up to those areas to determine what to do with the funds, Silver has committed to returning them to Yukoners and Yukon businesses through a rebate.

There was some parallel between this and the federal announcement. Trudeau said Ottawa expects to return about 90 per cent of the revenues back to households through incentive payments – direct cheques. The other 10 per cent will go to areas like schools, hospitals and businesses.

That’s in efforts to encourage better behaviour in the provinces that do not comply (Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Ontario and New Brunswick).

Silver has been pressed about the tax for some time, when it was thought to be that the $20 per tonne tax would begin in January 2019.

After Tuesday’s announcement, the territory will instead have a bit longer to prepare thanks to Ottawa allowing the Yukon and Nunavut until July 2019 for the backstop to come into effect. A release noted that date also applies to the Northwest Territories.

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