Canada’s federal budget watchdog has come out in defence of his latest report, which found that Canadian families will pay up to $1,008 on the Liberal government’s Clean Fuel Regulations.
In a recent report, Parliamentary Budget Officer (PBO) Yves Giroux found that lower-income families will pay $231 while higher-income families will pay $1,008 by 2030.
“I can understand that people are not happy when we underline that government action will have repercussions, and in this case, costs, but I stand by the analysis we provided,” Giroux told the National Post.
Liberal Environment Minister Steven Guilbeault responded to the policy by accusing the PBO of releasing an “unbalanced” report that doesn’t factor in the unrealized costs of climate change.
“While we recognize the work of the PBO, their analysis takes the same unbalanced modeling approach as they did with the analysis of the price on pollution,” said Guilbeault.
“Their analysis does not account for technological change and assumes that no new technologies would come on line. That is not a reasonable assumption.”
According to Giroux, Guilbeault’s statement is “not accurate.”
“For example, if we cost the acquisition of warships, we don’t include the benefits of having new warships for Canada. When it comes to pharmacare and dental care, we don’t try to estimate the benefits of these measures,” said Giroux.
“PBO is the messenger. Critique the methodology of the messenger. Put out competing analysis. Inform citizens. Stir debate. Climate change is happening. We need price and regulatory change. Assess impacts. Don’t shoot the messenger.”
Last week, Guilbeault recently issued a veiled threat towards provinces that are looking for ways to not comply with new environmental rules introduced by the Liberals, including the Clean Electricity Standard which hopes to phase out fossil fuel power generation by 2035.
“We’ve regulated the ban on coal through (Canadian Environmental Protection Act), which is a criminal tool that the federal government has,” said Guilbeault.
“So not complying with this regulation would be a violation of Canada’s Criminal Code.”
