Even the most devoted fans of April Fools Day aren't looking forward to the first of the month this year as the federally instituted carbon tax looms. The exact nature of the tax's impact on Saskatchewan is undecided, but what is certain is that the price of fuelling up your vehicle is about to rise. 

Beyond that, however, much is still to be determined. This means the City of Estevan is stuck in limbo as they try to decide how to handle the local impact.

"It's coming in April first and there's a lot of unknowns," said mayor Roy Ludwig. "My understanding is in (British Columbia) where it's already in place, it's around seven cents a litre the price of fuel will go up. I'm guessing initially in Saskatchewan it will be around five cents a litre. But a lot of this is unknown at this point in time, we'll have to see how it all unrolls."

While the province has taken the federal government to court to oppose the tax, the process will take long enough that the tax is coming to Saskatchewan for a time either way.

"I know the province is in court with the federal goverment contesting the carbon tax," Ludwig said, "and we probably won't hear the results of that until early next year, in the spring maybe."

That even the price increase at the pump is not one hundred percent certain has caused some anxiety. Fuelling up will cost more for certain, though the federal government has promised a rebate.

"At this point in time the full cost of implementing the carbon tax is unknown, although if you take the cost of five cents a litre that will be considerable, probably costing the average family $500 a year," said Ludwig. "Now the feds are saying we'll get that back and then a couple hundred dollars more so I guess we'll see how that pans out."

As for the city itself, the increaed cost of running city vehicles from snow clearers to trucks, and the increased cost of heating city properties, could force the city to raise taxes of their own to compensate. Ludwig refused to firmly commit to any additional tax raises, however. 

"That will impact the natural gas and heating for homes as well. I think we'll have to take a step back and look at the cost," he said. "At this point in time it's premature to say we're looking at this or looking at that. We have a wait and see attitude right now. We'll see how much the fuel actually goes up, we'll see what the impact we'll be on natural gas. We're a fairly large natural gas user at Affinity Place so we'll have to see as all of this rolls out what it actually means for us and our bottom line."