Environment Minister Catherine McKenna has backed off a pledge to freeze the carbon tax at $50 a tonne after 2022, saying a re-elected Liberal government would review the levy with provinces before deciding how to proceed.
In June, Ms. McKenna said the Liberals planned not to increase the tax once it hit $50, which equates to roughly 11 cents a litre of gasoline. The minister was responding to a Parliamentary Budget Office report that concluded Ottawa would have to increase the levy to $102 a tonne if it relied on the federal tax alone − rather than the current mix of policies − to meet its international target for reduction of greenhouse gas emissions.
In an interview with The Globe and Mail, she said the government had no plan to increase the tax, but would make a decision on future levels toward the end of the next mandate after consultations with provinces, territories, businesses and Canadians more broadly.
The carbon tax will be a key issue in the Oct. 21 election. The federal Conservative Party opposes the levy and a number of conservative provincial governments are fighting the tax in court.
However, in a 2016 agreement, the federal, provincial and territorial governments, except for Saskatchewan, signed on to Ottawa’s plan to put a levy on carbon emissions. But the deal indicated the approach would be reviewed “by 2022 to confirm the path forward.”
“In our climate plan, we committed to 2022 with provinces and territories. So there are no plans to increase it – that was our plan to 2022,” Ms. McKenna said in a telephone interview last week.
Conservative politicians at both the federal and provincial levels have denounced the carbon levy as an undue burden on households, even though Ottawa is returning all the revenue it raises in a province or territory to that jurisdiction. Some 90 per cent of the proceeds are going to households in the form of rebates delivered through the income-tax system that, for the average consumer, covers the full cost of the tax.
Conservative MP Pierre Poilievre condemned Ms. McKenna’s “double flip-flop” on the carbon tax, and said his party is eager to make the levy an issue in the coming election. “It is evidence that the Liberal government has a hidden agenda − they will raises taxes far higher than they have admitted to date,” Mr. Poilievre said Sunday as he took a break from door-knocking in his Ottawa-area riding.
The money sucking vacuum in action.
CVNT.
Like I said. A real cvnt.
Sheee ????doesn’t know her ass from a hole in the ground same as Mr Fancy Socks Turdhead ….
They are both puppets. Who’s driving the Agenda they push?
…The Libs are again banking on there being enough idiots who will choose good hair over bad policy.
Not going to happen this time around.
…I’m not so sure about that, Prof. Happened in Ontario four elections in a row between 2003 and 2015.
Talk to ANYONE Sir John. Coffee shop, beer store, gas station … you name it. I’ve never seen so much hatred in Canadians in my whole lifetime. A Liberal majority will surely raise the ire, and the establishment knows this as a fact.
I met a German immigrant at the dog park the other day. He hates Trudeau.
The sooner they are gone the better. Who’s the dude in the picture?
Canadians love this stuff. They won’t be happy until their entire paycheque goes directly to the LPoC and they are given an allowance. It’s coming.