Canada’s Parliamentary Budget Officer (PBO), Yves Giroux, stated that removing the Liberals’ carbon tax would save Canadians more money compared to their temporary two-month pause on GST.
Giroux took questions from MPs on Tuesday related to the state of Canada’s economy.
“Would it be more beneficial to have a permanent tax taken off . . . or is it better to just have a two month GST pause when it comes to affordability?” asked Conservative MP Jasraj Singh Hallan.
Giroux responded that it’s “quite obvious” that the permanent reduction to the carbon tax would be more helpful to Canadians.
Canada’s PBO has repeatedly said that the carbon tax economically hurts more Canadians than it helps. The Liberals maintain that the carbon tax rebates given to eligible families make 8 out of 10 families better off, but have cherry-picked one part of Giroux’s report to come up with their finding.
Taking into account the indirect cost of the carbon tax, such as inflating the cost of the supply chain, Giroux insists that the overall cost of the levy is greater than whatever Canadians receive back in carbon tax rebates.
Giroux further estimated a deficit of $46.8 billion for the 2023-24 fiscal year, indicating that the Liberals might have gone over their self-imposed fiscal guardrail of $40 billion, as promised by Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland.
The federal Liberals last raised their carbon tax to $80 per tonne on April 1, and plan to continue to raise it annually until 2030, all the way up to $170 per tonne.
