That's a good question. I would say that it really depends on the context.
If we're talking about a tax in the constitutional sense—so for exemptions for provincial assets, etc.—it's absolutely not a tax. It's a regulatory regime. If by “tax” what you mean is that it imposes additional costs in some way, that's a much broader definition of “tax” than most economists would use. However, absolutely, there are going to be some costs imposed in the supply chain because of the clean fuel standard. I think that's clear in, for example, the regulatory impact assessment that has come out from Environment and Climate Change Canada.
The answer to the second part of your question links to what I said earlier, which is that if we want a system that drives emissions down.... I'll use Quebec as an example. Quebec has a price on transportation fuels that comes in through its WCI, but emissions from transportation in Quebec have grown faster in recent years than emissions from the oil sands.
I'll cut that off there at your request.