Conservative PMs are lying about carbon pricing: Trudeau

OTTAWA – Prime Minister Justin Trudeau accused Conservative politicians across Canada, including prime ministers, of lying to Canadians about carbon pricing.

The Trudeau government is relenting as attacks on carbon pricing grow and voters increasingly side with politicians who say the policy is making their lives less affordable.

Most premiers and federal Conservatives want the Liberals to cancel Monday’s planned $15 per tonne carbon price increase, adding 3.3 cents per liter for gasoline and 2.9 cents per cubic meter for gas. natural.

Carbon rebates sent to households every three months are also being adjusted in parallel to the carbon price itself.

Political leaders who criticize the policy do not recognize or inform Canadians about those rebates, which are intended to offset costs for consumers, Trudeau said. Households that reduce their fuel consumption save money, but their rebate amounts are not affected.

“Conservative premiers across the country are misleading Canadians, they are not telling the truth,” he said.

“Eight in 10 families across the country in supporting federal jurisdictions make more money from the Canada Carbon Rebate than it costs from the price of pollution.”

The “backup” is the federal pricing system, which applies in all jurisdictions that do not have an equivalent pricing system of their own. Currently, British Columbia, Quebec and the Northwest Territories do that, while all other provinces and territories use the federal consumer tax.

Trudeau also accused Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre of blocking legislation that would double the rebate for rural Canadians.

His comments at a news conference in Vancouver came a day after he wrote to critical prime ministers suggesting they had not found a viable alternative, but that if they did, he would be all ears.

They also came as Saskatchewan Premier Scott Moe was making his case against carbon pricing before a House of Commons committee, the first of three premiers who will do so this week.

Moe said he believes in climate change and that emissions must be reduced. But he said putting a price on pollution is not the way to do it.

“The goal is not for the big polluters to pay, but for them to emit less,” he said, a little irritated during an exchange with NDP MP Alexandre Boulerice.

“How is it possible that we should not make the big polluters pay?” Boulerice asked in French, accusing Moe of believing that “giant vacuum cleaners” will suck emissions from the sky to solve climate change.

Moe said Saskatchewan industry and farmers have reduced their emissions and are shifting products that have a higher carbon footprint overseas.

“We are not climate laggards,” Moe said.

He insisted that the carbon price makes it difficult for families and companies to reduce their emissions.

The adversarial nature of the debate was on full display in the committee, which spent almost as much time arguing about whether Moe should have been there as listening to what he had to say.

Liberal, NDP and Bloc Quebecois MPs accused the Conservatives, who chair the committee, of bypassing other members and inviting Moe to speak at a meeting that had nothing to do with carbon pricing.

Conservative chairwoman Kelly McCauley said she invited Moe and other premiers because they had asked to speak to the finance committee, which denied them.

Alberta Premier Danielle Smith and New Brunswick Premier Blaine Higgs are scheduled to appear before the committee on Thursday.

Smith said Wednesday his province has a plan to be carbon neutral by 2050 by reducing significant industrial emissions. He pointed to a Canadian Climate Institute report last week that said carbon pricing on heavy industry is doing more to reduce emissions than the consumer tax.

The consumer tax is still expected to reduce between 19 and 22 million tonnes of annual emissions by 2030, which could be about 10 per cent of what Canada aims to reduce on that same timeline.

Smith herself is under fire in Alberta for raising the provincial gas tax five cents per liter on April 1, more than the 3.3 cents added by carbon pricing and without any refund.

Smith defended the measure, which restores a tax that had previously been cut, as necessary to pay for roads.

A similar attack was launched against Higgs in New Brunswick after the province’s public services board approved a nearly 13 per cent increase in electricity bills starting April 1.

Provincial Liberal Leader Susan Holt called for an emergency debate in the provincial legislature on the increase.

“If Premier Higgs focused on New Brunswickers instead of obsessing about Ottawa, he would be doing his part to make life more affordable for you,” Holt said in a social media post.

Ontario Liberal MP Francis Drouin also questioned Moe why, if he is so concerned about the cost of living, he hasn’t cut provincial taxes.

Saskatchewan already exempts natural gas used for heating from provincial sales taxes.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published March 27, 2024.