Seven in 10 Canadians are opposed to the impending increase to the federal carbon tax, according to a new poll.
The Trudeau government will be raising the carbon tax an additional 17 cents per litre of gasoline, 21 cents per litre of diesel and 15 cents per cubic metre of natural gas.
A poll done by Leger for the Canadian Taxpayers Federation found that the majority of Canadians, 69%, were opposed to the hike, while the remaining 31% were in support of it.
That number would increase to 72% if the poll was to exclude Quebec and British Columbia, where the federal carbon tax isn’t applied directly.
“The poll is clear: the vast majority of Canadians, across every province and all demographics, oppose the upcoming federal carbon tax hike,” said Franco Terrazzano, CTF’s federal director.
“Prime Minister Justin Trudeau should listen to Canadians and stop hiking his carbon tax.”
Respondents in opposition to the tax hike spanned across all demographics, broken down by age, gender, province, income and education level.
The carbon tax has become so unpopular amongst Canadians that the Liberals recently changed the name of it to try and better sell it as a concept, now calling it the “Canada Carbon Rebate.”
The Trudeau government felt that the previous language surrounding the policy may be too “complex” for some Canadians to understand.
“The name was updated to the Canada Carbon Rebate to clarify its function, and make its meaning and relationship to the carbon pricing system more intuitive for Canadians,” reads the government press release.
While they may have changed the name, the pricing scheme remains the same, and the hike is still scheduled for April 1.
“If we can speak the language that people speak because people say the words ‘carbon,’ they say the words, ‘rebate,’ right? And if we can speak that language that’s important, so people understand what’s going on here,” said Labour Minister Seamus O’Regan.
However, critics of the tax, including Terrazzano, referred to the name change as simply putting “lipstick on a pig.”
“If Canadians don’t support a carbon tax that costs 17 cents per litre of gas, how can the feds justify cranking it up all the way to 37 cents per litre in a few years?” said Terrazzano.
“Canadians need relief so Trudeau should make life more affordable and scrap the carbon tax.”
Several premiers have opted out of collecting the carbon tax like Scott Moe in Saskatchewan.
Northwest Territories Premier R.J. Simpson requested a full exemption from the carbon tax in December.
