Canadian taxpayers will have to dish out $200 million extra in hidden administration fees for the carbon tax as of its inception in 2019.
The costs were revealed by the Canadian Taxpayers Federation (CTF) after obtaining government records based on an article by Blacklock’s Reporter on the issue.
The Trudeau government assigned 465 full-time employees to administer the carbon tax rebate scheme, costing Canadian taxpayers $82.6 million last year alone.
“The carbon tax is a double whammy for taxpayers,” said Franco Terrazzano, CTF Federal Director. “First, it makes our gas, heating and groceries more expensive. And then we’re forced to pay higher taxes to fund Trudeau’s battalion of carbon tax bureaucrats.”
Conservative MP for Grande Prairie-Mackenzie, Chris Warkentin, requested order paper questions to release the details of what the cost was regarding the administration of federal carbon tax.
In 2022, carbon tax administration costs came to $82.6 million and totalled $116.5 million between 2019 and 2021.
There were 223 bureaucrats “assigned to work on the collection of the fuel charge” last year, while 242 were charged with administering the rebate scheme, according to the documents.
In 2022, the yearly costs for the rebate scheme peaked as the government changed the structure of the rebate “from a refundable credit claimed annually on personal income tax returns, to [a] quarterly tax-free payment made through the benefit system.”
“It should be obvious to everyone that the feds can’t raise taxes, skim hundreds-of-millions off the top and hire hundreds of new bureaucrats, then somehow make everyone better off with rebates,” said Terrazzano.
In 2019, 256 bureaucrats cost taxpayers $33,219,471.
In 2020, 316 bureaucrats were hired, costing $40,541,290.
The following year, 333 bureaucrats were hired, costing $42,766,636 and that number jumped up to $82,628,993 in 2022, after 465 bureaucrats were hired.
According to the Parliamentary Budget Officer, the average family will spend up to $710 on the carbon tax this year, even after they have received their rebates.
Currently, the carbon tax costs 14 cents per litre extra for gasoline and 12 cents per cubic metre of natural gas.
That price is expected to increase to 37 cents per litre of gasoline and 32 cents per cubic metre of natural gas by 2030.
“Canadians pay higher taxes so federal paper-pushers can increase our fuel prices and make our lives more expensive,” said Terrazzano. “Prime Minister Justin Trudeau can immediately make life more affordable by scrapping his carbon tax and taking some of the air out of his ballooning bureaucracy.”
Several premiers have begun to push back on Trudeau’s carbon tax, with Saskatchewan Premier Scott Moe vowing to stop collecting the federal carbon pricing on home electric heating as of Jan. 1 2014.
The carbon tax isn’t just affecting individual Canadians, but it’s putting financial stress on emergency services as well, who are struggling to afford the cost of heating their fire halls and filling up their fire trucks.
