Some rural Canadians are getting a modest reprieve from the carbon tax.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said Thursday his government would put a three year freeze on the carbon tax for home heating oil. Trudeau also announced a doubling of the rural supplement to the carbon tax rebate.
“We have to fight climate change in a way that supports all Canadians,” Trudeau said.
The Trudeau government plans to offer new programs to rural Canadians to incentivize them to switch to alternate heating options.
Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre took Trudeau’s announcement as proof the current government is “not worth the cost.”
“After plummeting in the polls, a flailing, desperate Trudeau is now flipping and flopping on the carbon tax as I am holding a gigantic axe the tax rally in a Liberal-held Atlantic riding,” Poilievre wrote on X (formerly Twitter).
“He is admitting he’s not worth the cost.”
Atlantic Canadians have been particularly affected by the carbon tax. It was a Liberal member of parliament from Newfoundland, Ken McDonald, who voted with the Conservatives on a motion to suspend the carbon tax earlier this month.
“You can’t do it all overnight,” McDonald said of his government’s approach to climate. ”You can’t make it more expensive on people than what they can handle. And that’s exactly what’s happening right now.”
The federal carbon tax will apply to provinces and territories that don’t have a carbon pricing system that Ottawa considers sufficient enough to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
Households in those provinces are entitled to a rebate to offset the tax.
Currently the tax is fixed at $65 per tonne of emissions and set to rise by $15 every year through to 2030.
