Atlantic Liberal MPs call for revisions to carbon pricing policy to help rural residents
Kody Blois and other Liberal MPs who represent rural Atlantic Canadian residents say the federal carbon tax program should be revised.
“I think our policies have to be adjusted in two ways,” said Blois, the MP for Kings-Hants.
The two ways are a higher rebate for rural residents and a carbon tax exemption on home heating oil.
The carbon pricing levy that came into effect in Nova Scotia on July 1 meant an additional 14.31 cents per litre for gasoline at the pumps and 17.39 cents per litre for diesel and light fuel oil, including furnace oil.
The federal government said that quarterly incentive rebates now being forwarded to Nova Scotians would result in the majority of residents faring better financially with the carbon tax and the offsetting rebates.
The Nova Scotia rebate amounts to $248 for a family of four every three months, $124 for an individual adult, $62 for a second adult and $31 for each child.
Residents outside a Census Metropolitan Area (CMA), which in Nova Scotia is Halifax, receive a 10 per cent supplement to their incentive rebates from the federal government.
“I think it should be higher based on the lived realities of the places that I represent versus more urban areas in the province,” Blois said. “A starting point is that it should be doubled. It should go from 10 to 20 per cent.”
Heating oil exemption
The other way in which Blois would like to see the carbon program adjusted is for the additional tax on home heating oil – 17.39 cents per litre – to be lifted.
“I would like to see an exemption on home heating until such time that our programs that we’ve put in place, such as the Oil to Heat Pump program and the Green Homes initiative, until the merits of those programs can further work their way out to help people make that transition,” Blois said.
“I am calling for an exemption on home heating for at least a couple of years.”
Blois said other Atlantic Liberal caucus members are in agreement.
Ken McDonald, the MP for the Avalon riding in Newfoundland and Labrador, said last week that his constituents feel abandoned by the federal government.
“We’re punishing the rural areas of our country and the most vulnerable people in our society,” McDonald said, pushing for policy changes so that rural Canadians would receive higher carbon tax rebates.
“I don’t want this to be construed as I don’t support carbon pricing,” Blois said. “The weather events that we’ve seen this year are demonstrable to all Nova Scotians that we need a government that’s serious about climate action. I’m not suggesting that the government renege on its pledges to do more on climate. I’m not suggesting that carbon pricing isn’t an effective policy but when I look at our federal backstop, I’d like to see adjustments to the policy to better reflect the communities that I represent.”
Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre and his party, promising to cancel the carbon tax if they form government, were quick to portray the Liberal MPs’ call for a program adjustment as a Liberal revolt against the carbon pricing program.
“Pierre Poilievre doesn’t have a climate plan, he’s not talking about these issues,” Blois said. “I’m not suggesting that the government’s intent and the policy is wrong. Far from it, I’m just saying I’d like to see some adjustments that better reflect rural Canada.”
Opposition to tax
The Progressive Conservative government in Nova Scotia has long railed against the carbon tax as unnecessary and unduly burdensome.
Earlier this week, Shelburne MLA Nolan Young again criticized the Trudeau government for imposing punitive carbon taxes.
“We are calling on Zach Churchill and the (provincial) Liberals to decide whether they support the carbon tax or stand with hard working Nova Scotians,” Young said in a release. “The carbon tax is making life less affordable and it’s time the Liberals join Premier Houston and stand up to their federal Liberal colleagues and oppose the Liberal carbon tax.”
Days before July 1, the Nova Scotia government initiated a two-week $56,000 radio, print and social media advertising campaign against the federal carbon tax. The province pulled the ads three days early after Elections Nova Scotia, acting on a Nova Scotia Liberal party complaint, expressed concern that the ads interfered with an Aug. 8 byelection in Preston.
The Nova Scotia Liberals also sent a letter to the province’s Auditor General Kim Adair, requesting an investigation into concerns that the government abused its power by spending public funds for the purpose of partisan advertising.
‘ACCURATE INFO’
The letter said the ads, if intended to be educational, were misleading in that they failed to reference the incentive rebates.
On Thursday after the provincial cabinet met, Brian Comer, the Communications Nova Scotia (CNS) minister, was asked about the Liberal complaint and he said CNS is obligated to “present accurate and up-to-date information.”
The minister said the information was accurate, despite the omission of rebate information, and he disagrees with Elections Nova Scotia’s assessment that the ad was partisan in nature.
“It was a non-partisan ad,” he said. “Elections Nova Scotia reached out and we did agree to take the ad down prematurely as a measure of good faith but I think certainly it was accurate information.”
Comer said the requested investigation would be up to the auditor general.
Adair said the audit plan for 2023 is set and Communications Nova Scotia is not on the list.
“We have a very long list of potential audits and receive many requests,” Adair said. “We take all of them into consideration when deciding our work plan each year.
“These programs take time to work out,” Blois said. “There is only so much skilled labour that can drive these installations. As we come into winter of 2024, I think it would make sense to exempt home heating for at least another year or two until such time that Nova Scotians can take advantage of those programs.”
