We're just a few months away from the carbon tax coming into effect across the country, and one report says Manitoba's plan isn't doing enough to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. 

The Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives released a report today that says the province's plan to keep its carbon tax flat at $25 per tonne over a five year period won't work in the long run. The province has insisted on its own plan since the Federal Government said it would impose a carbon pricing plan on the provinces that would start at $10 a tonne in 2018 and ramp up to $50 a tonne by 2022.

Report author Harvey Stevens says the province's plan falls well short of the reductions required to meet Canada's commitment in the 2015 Paris Climate Change Summit.

"By 2022 the federal carbon price would result in 76 kilotonnes lower emissions than the Manitoba price and the cumulative emissions reductions up to 2030 would be considerably greater under the federal price," Stevens said. "The Manitoba price doesn't meet the performance measures that a federal price would." 

The report looked at two modeling studies commissioned by the government and found that both actual emissions will be lower and cumulative reductions in emissions greater under the Federal carbon price, meaning Manitoba may as well accept the Federal backstop of $50 per tonne by 2022. 

The province has made it very clear, however, it will move ahead with its plan and fight the backstop in court if need be. 

Stevens says the report also found that after 2022, every province should raise it's carbon tax by $7 per year in order to keep up with growing economies that produce more greenhouse gases. 

He says the province can help itself along in the next few years by reinvesting the money it makes from the carbon tax into a number of green projects like electrifying city buses, investing in charging stations to encourage people to buy electric or hybrid cars, encouraging people to invest in household and industrial net emission-free heat, decreasing the use of inorganic fertilizer and lessening the amount of greenhouse gas intensive livestock production.  

The province has said it will start a $40 million climate and green fund for projects in Manitoba dedicated to reducing greenhouse gases.

The carbon tax was set to kick in Sept. 1, 2018 but the opposition NDP say they are going to delay it.

You can view the full report online.