QUEBEC - Quebec energy companies will have to pay their share to help cut greenhouse gases as the provincial government announced Wednesday that it will introduce a carbon tax in October.
The tax, believed to be the first of its kind in Canada, will tax 0.8 cents on every litre of gas sold in Quebec and will raise about $200 million a year to finance the province's green plan to reduce greenhouse gases.
The province will also slap a tax of 0.9 cents on each litre of diesel sold.
The plan was created to help Quebec reach its Kyoto protocol targets, which is to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to 1990 levels by 2012.
All companies that produce greenhouse gases will have to contribute to the fund according to their emission coefficient and oil companies will be on the hook for most of it.
They will pay about $69 million a year for gasoline, $36 million for diesel fuel, and $43 million for heating oil. Natural gas distributors will pay about $39 million while electricity distributor Hydro-Quebec will chip in $4.5 million for its thermal energy plant in Tracy, Que.
About 50 companies in total will be affected by the tax.
Natural Resources Minister Claude Bechard said he has no guarantees that companies won't try to pass the tax on to consumers, but hopes that isn't the case.
"I appeal to their sense of social responsibility and their good faith,'' Bechard told a news conference in Quebec City on Wednesday. "Everyone has to do their part. I hope the companies will make the effort to absorb the costs. They have the room to manoeuvre.''
Bechard says energy producers shouldn't be surprised by the tax because it was announced a year ago.
