When it comes to the “Carbon Tax”, it’s difficult to separate the wheat from the chaff when it comes to what we are told by the federal government versus what is said by some provincial governments. Canada has an Emissions Reduction Plan whose target is to be 40% below 2005 emissions levels by 2030 and net-zero emissions by 2050. Part of this plan consists of a national carbon price, or fuel levy, we call the Carbon Tax, which rose last Monday in all but Quebec, BC and the three Territories which have their own carbon pricing plans. The quarterly rebates also rose except in PEI, Newfoundland and Labrador, and Nova Scotia which decreased because of the three-year Carbon Tax exemption on home heating oil. The federal government says all the money collected from the Carbon tax is returned to the province where it was collected with 90% going towards rebates and the remainder to farmers, indigenous communities and businesses. Some premiers, along with the federal opposition leader, oppose the Carbon Tax arguing it compounds the current cost-of-living crisis and shouldn’t have been raised last week, plus we shouldn’t even have a Carbon tax in the first place. I am no expert on Greenhouse Gas emissions but if our province has a plan as good as or better than the Carbon Tax to reduce emissions, I don’t know what it is. Either it hasn’t been communicated properly, or I’ve missed it, or else there isn’t one. So, I just do my best to navigate the mental maze of what the federal government says versus what some provinces say.
That’s Coffeetalk. I’m Vic Dubois.