GOLDSTEIN: PM accusing premiers of dishonesty on carbon taxes is rich

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Prime Minister Justin Trudeau accusing Manitoba Premier Heather Stefanson and different premiers of being dishonest with Canadians in regards to the impression of his carbon tax on the price of dwelling was fairly astounding in its hypocrisy.

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“What the premier and others throughout the nation don’t appear to be trustworthy about with Canadians is within the locations like Manitoba, the place the federal value on air pollution applies, common households get more cash again from the worth on air pollution than the additional value on air pollution prices them,” Trudeau stated Thursday, earlier than a gathering with Stefanson.

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“We discovered a method of preventing local weather change whereas supporting households who want that assist, and that’s one thing that we’re going to proceed to do,” Trudeau stated, as reported by The Canadian Press.

Trudeau was responding to a request from the premiers of Manitoba, Alberta and Saskatchewan to quickly droop the federal carbon tax to assist folks higher deal with inflation. (Ontario is the fourth province the place the PM imposed his carbon tax.)

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Trudeau’s declare “common households” in these provinces get extra again in carbon tax rebates than they pay in carbon taxes relies on his authorities’s declare 80% of households find yourself higher off financially.

However in March, unbiased, non-partisan Parliamentary Price range Officer Yves Giroux stated when the destructive monetary impression of Trudeau’s carbon tax on the financial system is taken into account — together with decreased annual GDP, labour revenue and enterprise funding — 60% of households within the 4 provinces find yourself worse off financially.

That may enhance to 80% in Ontario in 2024 and to 80% in Alberta in 2028, the PBO stated.

“Most households in provinces underneath the backstop will see a web loss ensuing from federal carbon pricing … That’s, family carbon prices will exceed the Local weather Motion Incentive funds households obtain” Giroux stated.

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The variations claimed by the Trudeau authorities versus the PBO are startling.

For this yr, the Trudeau authorities claims, common households in Manitoba will find yourself $229 forward after paying the federal carbon tax due to the rebates. In contrast, the PBO says the common family in Manitoba will probably be $299 worse off.

Within the three different provinces the relative numbers are:

Alberta: Feds say common family $338 higher off, PBO says $671 worse off.

Saskatchewan: Feds says common family $319 higher off, PBO $390 worse off.

Ontario: Feds say common family $134 higher off, PBO $360 worse off.

Take into accout, that’s only for this yr, with a $50 carbon value per tonne of greenhouse fuel emissions, which is able to enhance yearly to $170 in 2030.

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With regard to deceptive the general public, previous to the 2019 election, the Trudeau authorities stated his carbon value can be frozen at $50 per tonne from 2022 to 2030. After the election, the story modified.

As well as, the Trudeau authorities repeatedly claimed, beginning in 2016, that it might meet its 2020 goal for chopping emissions.

It missed its 2020 goal by 57 million tonnes — the equal of all emissions from the electrical energy sector that yr — even with the worldwide recession attributable to the pandemic slashing emissions all around the world.

Trudeau has refused a request from the premiers of the 4 Atlantic premiers to increase his deadline for them to submit plans to the federal authorities on how they are going to value emissions as much as 2030, which expired Friday.

The premiers had requested for extra time to implement measures to reduce the inflationary impression of carbon pricing on their residents.

lgoldstein@postmedia.com