The Liberals are demanding that the federal budget watchdog rewrite a report that reveals how most Canadians are being shafted by the carbon tax.
Last week, Parliamentary Budget Officer (PBO) Yves Giroux found that a majority of households would see a “net loss” from the federal levy.
“We estimate that most households will see a net loss, paying more in the federal fuel charge and GST, as well as receiving lower incomes, compared to the Climate Action Incentive payments they receive,” said Giroux.
Unhappy with the outcome of Giroux’s accounting, Liberal MP Lloyd Longfield wrote an open letter demanding that he take into account the unrealized “costs of climate change.”
“I was therefore more than deeply perplexed, I was shocked, when I read in your distributional assessment of the federal fuel charge that the PBO analysis ‘does not attempt to account for the economic and environmental costs of climate change,’” claimed Longfield.
“Such a study should also include recognition of the economic benefits that pollution pricing induces through energy-saving measures such as installing electric heat pumps to replace oil furnaces in homes, or the lifetime cost savings of owning a Zero Emission Vehicle compared to an internal combustion engine, or a myriad of other fuel-saving measures across the economy.”
Longfield cited a number of studies that have attempted to estimate the economic costs climate change would have for Canada.
Studies cited by Longfield like the Institute for Sustainable Finance’s The Physical Costs of Climate Change: A Canadian Perspective rely on economic modeling and projections all the way until the year 2100.
“We use the DICE model to project economic outcomes for Canada under 2°C, 3°C, 4°C, and 5°C warming scenarios by using Canadian-specific inputs for the Cobb-Douglas function, which allows the model to calculate climate damage projections for Canada using global temperatures,” wrote the study’s authors.
“As a result of these limitations, our results paint an incomplete picture of the total economic outcomes under each warming scenario.”
Despite rebates, Canadian families will have to pay up to $847 extra in the form of the federal carbon tax.
“The Parliamentary Budget Officer shows politicians are using magic math to sell their carbon tax,” said Canadian Taxpayers Federation federal director Franco Terrazzano in a news release.
“The PBO is clear: the carbon tax costs families hundreds of dollars more than the rebates they get back.”
