TORONTO — The Ontario government will not appeal a court ruling against its anti-carbon tax stickers, the province’s energy minister said Thursday, putting an end to an 18-month political and legal battle between Ottawa and Queen’s Park.

The province will abide by a decision earlier this month that struck down the law as unconstitutional, Energy Minister Greg Rickford said in a statement.

“We stand by our position that Ontarians deserve to know the true cost of the federal carbon tax,” Rickford said in a statement.

“Right now, however, our sole focus is protecting the health and well-being of the people of Ontario as we continue to battle COVID-19.”

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Justice Edward Morgan said Sept. 4 that Premier Doug Ford and his Progressive Conservative government overstepped in mandating the stickers, saying the Federal Carbon Tax Transparency Act could not be justified under the charter.

“A government or political party can, in the words of Ontario’s Minister of Energy, ‘stick it to’ another tier of government or political party as a matter of free speech in an election campaign or otherwise,” Morgan wrote.

“But a government cannot legislate a requirement that private retailers post a sticker designed to accomplish that task.”

Under the law, gas stations that didn’t display the stickers faced fines of up to $10,000 per day, though a judge later lowered the daily penalty to $150.

Morgan said in his ruling the companies can now choose to leave them up or tear them down.

The stickers show the federal carbon tax adding 4.4 cents per litre to the price of gas now, rising to 11 cents a litre in 2022. They do not include information about rebates available to residents.

The Canadian Civil Liberties Association, which brought the challenge a year ago, called Thursday a “great day for free speech.”

“Not forcing businesses to convey their own political messages is a good call” by the Tories, the CCLA said in a tweet.

The Tories first proposed the anti-carbon tax stickers in April 2019 as part of a suite of “transparency measures” about the federal carbon tax.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 1, 2020.

Adam Burns, The Canadian Press

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