Nova Scotia's cap-and-trade system inching forward

Nova Scotia is now officially a cap-and-trade province, but what carbon pricingwill cost NovaScotiansremains a mystery.

Legislation that was passed in October came into effect on Thursday.On Friday, Environment Minister Iain Rankin detailed another step along the road toward a January 2019 start for the program.

His department has released what it is calling the "quantification, reporting and verification of greenhouse gasemissions regulations."

These are the first set of rules needed to further the program, includingdetermining thefigure thatwill serve as the cap on emissions and how the province will be monitor compliance with the law.

Those new regulations set out which companies will need to report emissions, including:

• Facilities generating at least 50,000 tonnesof greenhouse gas emissions per year.
• Oil and gas suppliers that import or produce 200 litres of fuel or more for consumption in Nova Scotia.
• Natural gas distributors whose fuel, when burned, produces 10,000 tonnesor more of greenhouse gas emissions per year

• Emera CEO 'unclear' how federal carbon pricing will affect power prices

The province estimates there are about two dozen companies that will fall under those three participant categories.

Large emitters include all ofNova Scotia Power's fuel-fired generating stations, the Lafargecement plant in Brookfield, the ExxonMobilgas plant in Goldboro and the Northern Pulp paper plant in PictouCounty.

Petroleum suppliers may include companies such as Imperial, Irving and Wilsons. Natural gas distributors are likely to include Heritage Gas and Irving.

'Demonstrating progress'

Jason Hollett, executive director of climate change withthe Nova Scotia Environment Department, said it would be up to the companies to report emissionsfigures and have an independent company audit them.

"We can't craft a system without really good information and that's what we're here today to talk about," he told reporters during a briefing.

"I think what we're doing today is demonstrating progress."

Costs to be passed to consumers

Companies will be expected to pay for this work themselves. Those costs, along with whatever they may have to pay for exceeding theyet-to-be-determinedemissionlimits, will then be passed along to consumers.

But what that will mean to Nova Scotian families is unclear and an answer to thatquestionmay still be months away.