NDP House Leader Peter Julian announced that his party would be supporting the Conservative’s motion to pause the carbon tax on all home heating devices, putting pressure on the Trudeau Liberals to further backtrack on their climate change scheme.
“The reality is we have people who are struggling to make ends meet — to heat their homes during the winter — and the panicked action of last week really needs to be adjusted to there are supports that go to people right across the country,” Julian told reporters, some of whom had meltdowns over his announcement.
Julian’s statement comes after Prime Minister Justin Trudeau backtracked on his carbon tax scheme with a three year “pause,” but only for home heating oil — something that mostly only Atlantic Canadians use.
The NDP House Leader further said Trudeau’s very specific backtrack was done in haste and isn’t fair to Canadians who don’t use home heating oil.
“It strangely seems to incentivize people to go into home heating oil which of course creates a bigger carbon footprint so it’s not a smart decision. It wasn’t a well thought out decision. It tends to disadvantage a lot of people,” Julien said.
Federal Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre has proposed to scrap the entire carbon tax but will propose a motion on Monday to stop taxing Canadians on “all forms of home heating.”
With support from the NDP, the motion would have enough votes to pass. The decision from the NDP is a surprising one, as they known for siding with the Trudeau Liberals on virtually every significant vote.
Carbon tax “pause”
The Prime Minister said the decision to “pause” the carbon tax came after listening to Canadians who expressed their financial concerns.
Trudeau maintains that the specific carve-out to home heating oil was done because it’s more harmful to the environment than those who heat their homes with alternative means such as natural gas.
The Conservatives claim that Trudeau only made the concession because Liberal MPs from Atlantic Canada begged him to do it, while his polling numbers in the region were taking a massive hit.
