Ontario Premier Doug Ford has joined in on calls to scrap the carbon tax — but the Trudeau Liberals say that “there will be no more carve outs.”
Ford made his plea to the feds while announcing he’s extending a provincial gas tax cut to help Ontarians at the pumps, which he said would save them 10 cents per litre of gas.
On Tuesday, Ford urged Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to cut “that awful, awful carbon tax.”
The Premier said doing so would remove an additional fourteen cents per litre of gas, as well as make almost everything cheaper.
“It’s a tax that raises prices on absolutely everything from fuel to groceries to electricity. From everything you touch, it all gets transported in one way or another,” he said.
Ford’s plea comes just after Prime Minister Justin Trudeau backtracked on the carbon tax in a way that affects mostly Atlantic Canada. Trudeau announced that home heating oil — which a disproportionate number Atlantic Canadians use — would be exempt from the carbon tax for the next three years.
Trudeau also promised to double the carbon tax rebate program for Canadians living in rural areas, and he introduced a pilot project in Atlantic Canada that offers financial incentives to households that switch to electric heat pumps.
“The fact is, the vast majority, ninety-five percent of Ontario, do not heat their homes or businesses with oil,” Ford said. “It’s completely unfair that they still have to pay the carbon tax.”
However, federal Minister of Natural Resources Jonathan Wilkinson said on Tuesday that “no more carve outs are coming.”
Wilkinson also responded to Saskatchewan Premier Scott Moe’s announcement that he will instruct SaskEnergy to stop collecting the federal carbon tax on January 1 if Trudeau doesn’t scrap it before then.
“We expect him to comply with the laws of the land,” Wilkinson said. “It is a requirement that they collect that or that it be collected in some way.”
Over the weekend, the Liberal’s Rural Economic Development Minister, Gudie Hutchings, said in an interview that Western Canada can benefit from carbon tax pauses like Atlantic Canada received by electing more Liberal MPs.
