Nova Scotia joins the Western Climate Initiative Inc.

On 14 May 2018, the government of Nova Scotia announced that the province has joined the Western Climate Initiative Inc. (WCI Inc.), which will provide technical support for Nova Scotia’s up-and-coming cap-and-trade program that will come into effect as of January 2019.
  

The WCI Inc. is a non-profit corporation that was formed to provide administrative and technical services that support the implementation of emissions trading programs. It currently provides such services for Québec, California and Ontario. The province will use WCI’s IT system to administer their program. 

Nova Scotia’s Premier Stephen Mc Neil announced the implementation of a cap-trade-program in November 2016, responding to the requirements of Canada’s federal carbon pricing plan. In March 2017, Nova Scotia released a discussion paper on design options for such a program and the foundations for the cap-and-trade legislation was passed in October 2017 through several amendments to the province’s Environment Act. The amendments took effect on 15 February 2018. 

Nova Scotia’s cap-and-trade program will cover around 20 entities including industrial facilities and fuel suppliers (click here for more details on the proposed program). Although other states and provinces that use WCI Inc. have linked their systems, linking with other provinces is currently not foreseen by Nova Scotia.