Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has joined the flurry of political leaders penning open letters about the carbon tax, publishing a formal response to Canadian premiers opposed to the marquee Liberal policy, imploring them to come up with a better climate action plan.
In a two-page message posted late Tuesday on social media, Trudeau thanks the premiers for raising the issue, before going on to defend the carbon pricing and coinciding rebate program as intentionally designed to be revenue-neutral and beneficial to most Canadian households, while driving climate action.
“Putting a price on pollution is the foundation of any serious plan to fight climate change. It is the most efficient way to reduce emissions across the economy,” Trudeau wrote. “Carbon pricing alone will account for one third of our emission reductions by 2030.”
Noting that the federal plan is a backstop for provinces that failed to implement an adequate system of their own, Trudeau said the federal government remains open to pulling its plan out of the provinces where it is opposed, as soon as they propose “credible systems.”
Currently the federal price is in effect in Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Ontario, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island and Newfoundland and Labrador. In effect since 2019, the pollution pricing regime applies a levy on greenhouse gas emissions, making it more expensive to burn fossil fuels in an effort to encourage Canadians to change their habits.
The prime minister called it “demonstrably false” that the carbon tax is a significant driver of inflation, pointing back to a Bank of Canada calculation also cited by a series of economists in an open letter issued Tuesday seeking to counter the Conservative-led opposition arguments against the policy.
“As the price on pollution increases, so does the Canada Carbon Rebate, which means Canadian families can expect more money in their bank accounts on a quarterly basis. Rebates are about to go up,” he said, citing the increase to the reimbursement amount households receive.
Trudeau ended the letter with “please accept my warm wishes.”
This comes after the premiers of New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Saskatchewan and Alberta made public letters asking to appear urgently before a parliamentary committee to discuss the looming April 1 increase seeing the $65-per-tonne carbon price increase to $80 per tonne.
While the premiers’ request was to testify before the Liberal-led House Finance Committee, they’ve instead been invited to speak to the Conservative-chaired Government Operations and Estimates Committee.
Testimony gets underway on Wednesday, with Saskatchewan Premier Scott Moe up first at 11 a.m. ET, and expected to be followed later in the day by New Brunswick Premier Blaine Higgs.
