SASKENERGY CASE DROPPED — SaskEnergy employees can sleep a little easier. Revenue Minister MARIE-CLAUDE BIBEAU switched a key carbon tax-related designation from SaskEnergy to the province of Saskatchewan, Playbook has learned. The move ended a lawsuit launched against her by the provincial Crown corp. A notice of discontinuance was filed in federal court on Feb. 9 to drop the application for judicial review. — Quick context: As Playbook previously detailed, the suit warned the organization and its employees were about to land in hot water, facing fines and possibly even jail time, if the responsibility for paying the carbon tax on natural gas wasn’t transferred over to the province within a matter of weeks. — Beat the clock: SaskEnergy President MARK GUILLET had warned in the court case about a looming end-of-February deadline for payment of the January 2024 carbon tax. That deadline would have pitted his organization against conflicting provincial and federal laws. Collision avoided. Saskatchewan passed its own law last year preventing the Crown corp. from paying the federal tax. Premier SCOTT MOE has vowed the province will stop collecting the tax for electric heat in an ongoing political clash with Ottawa over carbon pricing. $5 BILLION MASK SUIT — Domestic makers of N95 masks and other personal protective equipment are seeking a whopping C$5.4 billion in damages claiming Ottawa led them down the garden path on its commitments to supporting them. The small and medium-sized Canadian manufacturers claim they were misled on supports for buying and promoting their products to fend off Covid-19, which led them to retool their businesses or gear up for production. — C$88 million hit: A case filing in federal court by the Canadian Association of PPE Manufacturers alleges that “beginning March 20, 2020 and up to September 2023, the Plaintiffs collectively invested $88,400,000 into PPE manufacturing, and lost that same amount, all due to the negligent misrepresentation of the government of Canada.” They also calculated they collectively suffered C$5.4 billion in “lost market opportunity losses over a 10-year period,” after Ottawa indicated it wanted them to retool to produce pandemic defenses but later shifted gears and “supported foreign competition against Canadian SME manufacturers.” — Just launched: The government has not yet filed a defense. — Recall: The government drafted a plan in March 2020, titled “Canada’s Plan to Mobilize Industry to fight COVID-19.” The Commons also passed a unanimous consent motion on Dec. 16, 2021 calling for all masks and respirators purchased by the federal government should be from domestic manufacturers. The statement of claims suggests they were strung along during much of the pandemic under the big mobilisation plan. — The competition: The suit makes numerous references to foreign multinationals getting the advantage, like 3M “running roughshod” over them to influence procurement standards. 3M did not respond by deadline when asked for comment. Public Health Agency of Canada dealt a blow when it “inappropriately misdirected 40 million Canadians away from buying” N95 and other respirators and toward “making, buying and wearing cloth masks for at least the first two year period of the pandemic,” before ultimately dropping its mask mandate requirements in 2022. — The score: According to the lawsuit, PSPC told them in February 2022 it “would buy medical masks and respirators only from the Plaintiffs and Canadian manufacturers for any and all of the approximately 207 Government of Canada Departments and agencies served.” But “no contracts, standing orders or purchase orders were issued.”
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