The federal government has released a carbon pricing backstop, which will be forced upon provinces that don't come up with their own carbon pricing plan by 2018.

The backstop would also be used to supplement systems that do not fully meet the federal government's benchmark.

Part of the the federal system will see direct revenues from the carbon tax returned to the province from which they were collected.

In most cases, the levy will be applied early in the supply chain of each fuel used in a backstop jurisdiction, and will be payable by the producer or distributor. The final user of a fuel will not generally have any special rights or obligations in respect of the levy, as the user will purchase levy-paid fuel in most cases.

Carbon levy rates will initially be set to $10 per tonne in 2018, increasing by $10 per tonne annually to $50 per tonne in 2022.

Under the federal plan, farmers would receive relief on gasoline and diesel fuel used in certain activities.

Manitoba Premier Brian Pallister has stated that a Made-in-Manitoba solution will be revealed later this year.

Written comments on the federal plan are being accepted until June 30th.