Liberal leadership candidate Mark Carney announced that, if elected, he would cancel the party’s contentious carbon tax in favour of green “incentives” for Canadians and businesses.
“The consumer carbon tax isn’t working; it’s become too divisive. That’s why I’ll cancel it and replace it with incentives to reward people for greener choices” Carney said in a statement Friday.
According to Carney, he would implement a green incentive program that would reward Canadians for purchasing energy efficient appliances and electric vehicles.
On a global scale, Carney said his replacement program would partner with other countries on trade that are also “engaged in the fight against climate change” in a way that would “ensure fairness for Canadian industries.”
He also announced plans to invest in energy-efficient buildings and electrified transportation, and would impose taxes on big polluters.
Carney claims his new suite of green incentive measures would enable Canadian businesses to “leapfrog the United States in international markets.”
Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre has been calling for an end to the carbon tax since March 2022.
“Pierre Poilievre pretends we have to choose between fighting climate change and growing our economy,” reads Carney’s statement. “His simplistic and misleading Axe the Tax inaction won’t work and would cost families more.”
Poilievre responded to Carney’s latest announcement by saying that he “simply can’t be trusted.”
“Whatever he tries to tell Canadians now, Carbon Tax Carney has been Justin Trudeau’s Economic Growth Advisor, who has been saying for years not only that he supports consumer carbon taxes but that they need to be even higher,” said Poilievre in a statement released Friday.
“He has spoken about his plans before, saying that Canada ‘needs to use effectively a shadow carbon price, meaning that you map into a representative carbon price the impact of, for example, an emissions regulation.’
The majority of Canadians remain unconvinced that any Liberal leader would eliminate the consumer carbon tax.
According to a Leger poll released Wednesday, 51% of Canadians are not confident that Liberal candidates will live up to their word and eliminate the carbon tax. Only 36% believe they will.
The carbon tax was first implemented in April 2019 at the cost of $20 per tonne with the goal of it being subsequently increased $10 annually to $50 in 2022.
Then the carbon tax began increasing by $15 a year, bringing it to $80 per tonne last year with the target of climbing to $170 a tonne by 2030.
It’s been a highly contested policy, with a recent poll revealing that 64% of Canadians across all party lines want to see it suspended immediately.
Among those polled who were decided on the issue, 77% were in support of the government immediately suspending the carbon tax across all demographics, such as age, gender and region.
“The poll results are crystal clear: the vast majority of Canadians want the government to immediately suspend the carbon tax,” said Canadian Taxpayers Federation federal director Franco Terrazzano. “Canadians shouldn’t have to pay the carbon tax on one more home heating bill or one more trip to the gas station.”
When it comes to respondents’ political stripes, Conservatives were the most likely to support suspending the carbon tax at 89%, followed by Liberals at 67%.
Liberal leadership hopeful Chrystia Freeland also said she would end the consumer portion of the carbon tax if elected, despite increasing it several times during her tenure as Minister of Finance and boasting about such policies in the House of Commons as recently as last fall.
