Canadian low-income taxpayers reel from second carbon tax
Canadian taxpayers are reporting severe effects from another carbon tax instituted by the Trudeau administration this month which has prices soaring to protect the climate.
This is the second annual levy on fuel prices aimed at forcing fuel companies to reduce the amount of carbon in their gasoline and diesel fuel. The tax, which took effect July 1st, saw gas prices jump C$0.17 and C$0.20 for diesel, in addition to a C$0.11 increase from last year’s carbon tax. But the tax is affecting more than just fuel.
"Because the gas goes up and diesel goes up it really means everything goes up," Nova Scotia Premier Tim Houston said last month, calling the levy a “punitive tax”. "Everything at the cash register will be a little more because of this tax. And the worse thing is this tax won't do anything to preserve the planet."
While state-sympathetic media claim the carbon tax will be an economic boon for families, taxpayers say otherwise.
Grocery store chain Fruticana President Tony Singh says food prices are now doubling because of the carbon tax.
“The prices on trucking have doubled,” Singh told prime ministerial candidate and chief Trudeau opponent Pierre Poilievre this month. “Not only bringing from a farm out of Mexico and California, [but shipping] from a warehouse from Surrey to Vancouver has doubled. So that gets added on to the price.”
Poilievre asked Singh for his response to a study cited by media operatives concluding that the carbon tax will not cause higher prices.
“Show me the formula,” replied Singh. “If they work, I will use the formula here to lower prices.”
A May analysis by Canada’s Parliamentary Budget Officer (PBO) found that Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s carbon tax is likely to cost lower-income households an extra C$1,157 by 2030.
“Canadians need another carbon tax like we need a kick in the head,” said Canadian Taxpayers Federation Federal Director Franco Terrazzano. “The Parliamentary Budget Officer is clear: Trudeau’s second carbon tax will cost families hundreds of dollars.”
In addition to the carbon tax itself, the mere operational costs of imposing the levy total about C$43 million ($32.5 million) and include over 333 federal jobs. The Environment and Climate Change Ministry revealed last year that C$38.4 million ($29 million) will be used to pay the 300 federal workers who will manage the direct-to-consumer fuel surcharge program, and C$4.36 million ($3.3 million) will be used to pay the other 33 workers who will manage the output-based pricing system on so-called polluters.
The carbon tax comes just months after Trudeau and other Canadian officials collected their fourth pay raise since the COVID-19 pandemic began.
