Conservative leadership candidates jockey for position on the carbon tax

As Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s authorities prepares to hike the federal carbon tax one other ten {dollars} per tonne of emissions on Friday, the main Conservative management candidates all agree on one factor — it is the mistaken transfer.

However that is the place their consensus ends. Questions on what Canada ought to do with carbon pricing, monetary offsets to customers and the broader battle in opposition to local weather change are nonetheless very a lot up for debate amongst Conservative management candidates. In lots of circumstances, the candidates’ grasp plans are nonetheless being written.

And as cost-of-living points conflict with Canadians’ nervousness about local weather change, these plans might assist determine who has the perfect shot at successful over each Conservatives and the citizens.

Poilievre holds the axe

Pierre Poilievre has been shouting his reply to the carbon tax query from the rooftops. On Thursday night time, he is holding an occasion in Ottawa he is calling the “Axe the Carbon Tax” rally.

And he is taken this polarizing problem a step additional than his opponents. As an alternative of merely attacking the Liberals, Poilievre has taken to calling the coverage the “Trudeau-Charest-Brown” carbon tax.

Whereas he was premier of Quebec, management candidate Jean Charest introduced in a cap-and-trade carbon pricing system that successfully put a value on carbon air pollution. Patrick Brown, one other of Poilievre’s opponents, referred to as for a value on carbon whereas main the Ontario Progressive Conservatives.

Each Brown and Charest have stated they oppose the upcoming federal hike.

The federal Liberals first launched a nationwide value on carbon in 2018. The federal coverage permits provinces and territories to design their very own carbon pricing programs, however imposes the carbon tax in jurisdictions that don’t introduce carbon pricing.

On Apr 1, 2022, the tax will rise to $50 per tonne of greenhouse fuel emissions. It is slated to rise to $170 a tonne by 2030.

Canadians underneath the federal carbon pricing regime obtain profit funds to compensate for larger costs. Beginning in July 2022, Canadians will obtain the Local weather Motion Incentive Fee mechanically each three months.

Poilievre does not merely need to cease the newest hike — he needs to kill the tax altogether. At a information convention at a Saskatchewan tractor producer in early March, he stated there are “numerous” methods to fight local weather change with out carbon pricing.

Thousands of economists, together with Nobel prize winners, have argued {that a} carbon tax is the simplest technique of shortly decreasing emissions.

In lieu of a tax, Poilievre has stated he’d put in place clear targets for emissions reductions and let provinces determine learn how to get there.

Poilievre additionally has talked concerning the virtues of carbon-capture and storage applied sciences and small modular nuclear reactors. He is additionally proposing a ban on oil imports from “dictatorships” that do not meet Canada’s environmental or moral requirements.

Charest to unveil environmental platform in Could

Charest does not have plans for a rally or a social media splash concentrating on the carbon tax. He has tried, nonetheless, to make his opposition to the upcoming price hike clear to Conservatives.

In an opinion piece in the Toronto Sun, Charest argued that “we’re in a cost-of-living disaster on this nation” and “a carbon tax hike right now will solely damage struggling households and companies.”

Charest is not abandoning carbon pricing altogether. In numerous media interviews, he is stated his plans for governing will embody a value on carbon. Whereas Charest has steered carbon pricing ought to goal business relatively than the retail stage and should not penalize rural Canadians, he hasn’t gotten into specifics.

Charest additionally has talked concerning the deserves of emissions-reducing vitality sources and applied sciences, comparable to biofuels, carbon sequestration and small modular nuclear reactors.

Charest’s marketing campaign says he’ll unveil his broader plan for the setting in early Could.

Brown says he will not repeat previous mistake on carbon tax

Whereas he supported carbon pricing as Ontario Progressive Conservative chief, Brown additionally has spoken out in opposition to the April 1 hike.

He wrote to Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland in early March asking her to rethink, citing rising vitality prices and financial upheaval.

Throughout his marketing campaign launch speech, Brown advised supporters that Conservatives care about decreasing greenhouse fuel emissions and the Conservative Get together have to be a part of the answer to local weather change.

However Brown additionally stated he is discovered “from expertise” that it is “not the proper strategy” to impose a local weather plan with out consulting with occasion members or caucus.

He has pledged to maintain party-wide consultations on the setting if he wins the management.

Lewis opposes tax

Leslyn Lewis joins Poilievre in arguing the federal carbon tax ought to be scrapped.

Lewis, who has a PhD in worldwide legislation, obtained her masters in environmental research and has written concerning the deserves of unpolluted vitality in sub-Saharan Africa.

In 2020, she tweeted that carbon pricing is “a pretend time period that makes us really feel we’re doing one thing for the setting.” She argued that the carbon tax is a wealth tax that does not change behaviour. 

Nobel-prize successful economist Paul Romer advised the CBC that behavioural adjustments will happen over time because the carbon tax price steadily will increase as a result of “folks will see that there is a large revenue to be produced from determining methods to produce vitality the place they’ll do it with out incurring the tax.”

Lewis’s marketing campaign stated extra particulars of her environmental platform will emerge later within the management race.

Conservatives will select their subsequent chief on Sept 10. Different elected officers even have introduced they’re working for the highest job, together with MPs Scott Aitchison and Marc Dalton and Ontario impartial MPP Roman Baber.