Canadian Cap and Trade Proposals

Cap and trade to fund green projects: NDP Party says plan will raise $7.4B annually by '14

April 11, 2011 - The federal New Democrats want to bankroll billions of dollars worth of green initiatives with the help of money generated by a proposed cap-and-trade system to reduce greenhouse gases.

NDP Leader Jack Layton on Sunday unveiled the party's election platform, which includes a cap-and-trade plan it says will add $3.6 billion to federal government coffers, increasing to $7.4 billion annually by 2014-15.

This comes just a week after the federal Liberals proposed a cap-and-trade program of their own.

Cap and trade has been a touchy subject for the Alberta government, which has worried a national scheme would shovel money out of the province to other areas of the country.

The New Democrat proposal would start immediately, if they are elected to the government. Their platform outlines a series of programs the money would help fund, such as public transit, and "transitioning workers to the green economy."

"What Alberta can do with its fossil fuel wealth is become a new energy economy, use that wealth to develop alternative energies," said Lethbridge NDP candidate Mark Sandilands. {continued}