Provincial politicians across the country are sprinting away from carbon taxes as fast as they can. But Liberal Leader Zach Churchill seems to be spinning in circles at the starting line.
Churchill claims he wants to scrap Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s carbon tax. In reality, he just wants to swap it for a provincial carbon tax dressed up as a cap-and-trade scheme.
Make no mistake: a tax is a tax, no matter what you call it.
Whether you’re at the pumps or the grocery store, any plan to keep carbon taxes is going to hurt your wallet. Churchill’s proposal will do little to ease high living costs in the province.
It’s true that former premier Stephen McNeil’s old cap-and-trade carbon tax system only raised gasoline prices by two cents per litre. But that wasn’t high enough for Ottawa, so the federal government imposed its carbon tax backstop. Any new provincial carbon tax will raise fuel prices higher than before.
In fact, the Churchill Liberals have admitted they want to copy Quebec’s carbon tax system. Iain Rankin, the current Liberal environment and climate critic and former premier, went so far as to call the Quebec program “successful.”
But the Quebec scheme currently costs taxpayers an extra 12.5 cents per litre of gasoline at the pumps. And that will rise further in the years ahead.
This means if Churchill’s plan was implemented in Nova Scotia today, taxpayers would still be expected to pay nearly $40 in taxes alone on a 64-litre fill up.
This is a bit less than the $45 in taxes Nova Scotians now pay under the federal carbon tax. But it’s not much of a break when people are struggling with rising costs.
What Nova Scotians deserve is a complete end to carbon taxes.
Progressive Conservative Leader Tim Houston wants the carbon tax scrapped and he doesn’t want to replace it with a provincial tax.
If Nova Scotia got rid of the federal carbon tax, gas taxes would drop by almost 25 cents per litre. That’s more than $15 off every 64-litre fill up. It would save taxpayers an extra $10 per fill up compared to Churchill’s plan.
Instead of pushing a carbon tax under another name, Churchill should listen to the growing number of provincial politicians, of all stripes, who realize these taxes aren’t worth the cost.
B.C. NDP Premier David Eby promised to scrap their provincial carbon tax if Ottawa removes the national one.
Newfoundland and Labrador Liberal Premier Andrew Furey has been a vocal critic of the federal carbon tax.
“It’s not right for the people of the province right now,” Furey told reporters. “That’s not to say that we don’t believe in fighting climate change. We certainly do, but this policy is wrong.”
With fuel prices going up due to the carbon tax, everything else follows. Every product on local store shelves got there by truck. When fuel costs spike, businesses must raise their prices to cover it. This raises costs across the local economy. It makes life more expensive for everyday Nova Scotians, and not just at the gas pumps.
While there is a current exemption to applying the carbon tax to home heating fuel, only 32 per cent of Nova Scotians see relief. That means 68 per cent of Nova Scotians are left out in the cold.
And for those lucky 32 per cent, the exemption is only temporary and will expire in April 2027. This means that unless the federal carbon tax is scrapped, it will eventually drive up the cost of heating all homes in Nova Scotia.
The bottom line is simple: provincial residents need relief from high costs, not higher taxes disguised as something else. It’s time for the Churchill Liberals to listen to taxpayers and scrap any plan to introduce more carbon taxes in Nova Scotia.
Devin Drover is the Atlantic Director and General Counsel of the Canadian Taxpayers Federation.
