70 Percent of Saskatchewan Residents Support Scrapping Industrial Carbon Tax: Poll

A majority of Saskatchewan residents back the province’s decision to remove the industrial carbon tax, a new poll suggests, nearly a year after the provincial government introduced the measure.

A poll released on Jan. 6 by the Canadian Taxpayers Federation (CTF) says that 69 percent of Saskatchewanians support the provincial government’s decision to set the provincial industrial carbon tax to zero, a move that took effect April 1, 2025. Meanwhile, 24 percent said they don’t agree with the levy’s removal, split evenly between those who “somewhat oppose” it and those who “strongly oppose” it.

Eight percent of respondents said they were unsure.

“Saskatchewanians know that carbon taxes on refineries make gas more expensive, carbon taxes on utilities make home heating more expensive and carbon taxes on fertilizer plants increase costs for Saskatchewan farmers,” said CTF Prairie director Gage Haubrich.

In late March 2025, amid rising tariff tensions between the United States and Canada, Saskatchewan Premier Scott Moe announced that his government would set the industrial carbon tax to zero, making the province the first in Canada to be “fully carbon tax-free.” Moe said the move would help businesses remain competitive and give consumers “a break.”

Prime Minister Mark Carney had signed a directive in mid-March to reduce the consumer portion of the carbon tax to zero, with the change taking effect on April 1, 2025.

Carney had said during the Liberal leadership race in early 2025 that the consumer carbon tax had become “too divisive” and that Canadians were bearing the costs of large industrial emitters. He said he would make industrial carbon pricing more stringent to ensure “big polluters pay.”

Moe, one of the most vocal opponents of the carbon tax among Canada’s premiers, decided in 2023 to begin withholding the home-heating carbon tax starting Jan. 1, 2024, in response to Ottawa’s decision not to exempt all forms of home heating. Ottawa had paused the tax on home-heating oil in fall 2023, a move that largely benefited Atlantic Canada but had little impact in western provinces, where natural gas is largely used for home heating.

Moe has also previously opposed the idea that large emitters should be financially penalized through carbon pricing, saying in a March 27, 2024, House of Commons testimony that “the goal is not for the big climate polluters to pay.”

“The goal is for them to reduce their emissions, because they are employing people in your community and my community,” he added.

In a May 13 letter to Carney following his election as prime minister, Moe urged Ottawa to return oversight of the industrial carbon tax to the provinces, calling their discussion two weeks prior one of the “first steps towards resetting the relationship between Saskatchewan and the federal government.”

He asked Carney to “transfer responsibility for the output-based pricing systems for heavy emitters to the provinces to ensure measures consider each province’s unique industrial structure, economic realities and trade exposure.”

The Jan. 6 poll surveyed 809 Saskatchewan residents.

Jennifer Cowan contributed to this report.