Atlantic premiers again assail federal carbon tax at Halifax meeting

Several premiers maligned the federal carbon tax as ineffective and unfair at a two-day Canadian premiers meeting in Halifax.

“There are much more effective ways to protect the planet,” Nova Scotia Premier Tim Houston, the conference host and chairman of the Council of the Federation, said of the federal tax that came into effect in Nova Scotia in July.

“We all know our climate is changing, we all know that governments and citizens have a responsibility to preserve our planet for future generations. We’re most interested in doing that in the most effective way.”

But that way is not the carbon tax, Houston said.

“They (federal government) should get rid of the carbon tax and move on to working with us on other initiatives.”

Houston’s Atlantic colleagues concurred with his assessment of the tax.

Dennis King, premier of Prince Edward Island, said the carbon tax issue is a difficult issue to talk about publicly.

“If you are in a jurisdiction such as ours and you talk about the impact of the carbon tax, quickly it’s thrown back at you that you are some kind of climate change denier, a knuckle-dragging Neanderthal-type personality that I would say Prince Edward Islanders are not.”

King said his is an island province that understands climate change.

“We live it every day and our position has been since we became the government in 2019 that rather than fight over these things, why can’t we work on the shared goals together to reduce our carbon footprint and help Islanders, … and Canadians in general, live their lives as we work toward that transition and that’s what we’ve tried to do.”

King said Islanders want to play a role in the reduction of carbon and making the future better and greener and the province is asking Ottawa to be a willing partner in that process.

‘Some relief’

Andrew Furey, premier of Newfoundland and Labrador, said the carbon tax and clean fuel regulations impact Atlantic Canadians disproportionately.

“That said, policies are live documents that rightfully deserve repeat evaluations and repeat evaluations and repeat evaluations to see if they are achieving the goals they want and how they are impacting Canadians more broadly,” Furey said. “From Newfoundland and Labrador’s perspective, we are happy that there will be some relief given with respect to the home heating fuels.”

‘If you are in a jurisdiction such as ours and you talk about the impact of the carbon tax, quickly it’s thrown back at you that you are some kind of climate change denier, a knuckle-dragging Neanderthal-type personality that I would say Prince Edward Islanders are not.”

P.E.I. Premier Dennis King

The federal government announced on Oct. 26 that it was pausing the carbon tax on home-heating oil for Canadians.

New Brunswick Premier Blaine Higgs said battling climate change requires a collaborative approach.

“I think it’s time to have a real analytical approach to the effectiveness of the carbon tax and is it achieving what it was intended to do, and I would say, no it’s not,” Higgs said.

“We have a program that’s kind of made in Canada that actually sticks to just Canada and we are not recognizing the opportunity for Canada to be a major player to reduce emissions around the world with energy sources that are available here.

“I think it’s time to have a real serious look at this carbon tax, what it’s done, what it’s doing and the negative impact it’s having and it’s time to stop treating Canada like we’re in a bubble and look at us at how we can make a major impact on the world scene.”

‘Effective mechanism’

The premiers were not all on side with Houston’s take on the carbon tax.

“From a British Columbia perspective, a big impact on taxpayers is we spent a billion dollars fighting forest fires this year,” said B.C. Premier David Eby, adding that a heat dome killed hundreds of people in the province.

“We have a massive investment to make in adaptation around dikes to prevent flooding around communities, to prevent forest fires from burning down towns,” Eby said.

‘For us, the carbon tax has been an effective mechanism to reduce carbon pollution. Since 2017, our emissions have gone down despite a dramatic increase in population and since the inception of the carbon tax.’

B.C. Premier David Eby

“For us, the carbon tax has been an effective mechanism to reduce carbon pollution,” he said. “Since 2017, our emissions have gone down despite a dramatic increase in population and since the inception of the carbon tax.”

Eby displayed his enthusiasm for the federal government’s heat pump initiatives in Atlantic Canada by unfurling a T-shirt that read I Love Heat Pumps. 

But newly elected Manitoba Premier Wab Kinew said the carbon tax is hardly a “silver bullet when it comes to climate change.”

Alberta Premier Danielle Smith said an early phase-out of coal in her province has cost “literally billions of dollars,” only then to be surprised by the carbon taxes being levied at the federal level.

“We believe very strongly that natural gas should be treated as a cleaner fuel,” Smith said. “If this is truly a global problem, then we need global thinking and global solutions and we should be exporting more of our cleaner fuel to reduce global emissions and not punishing our customers here at home. It’s not our customers’ fault that the alternatives are not available to them.”

‘Don’t work’

Smith did not share her neighbouring B.C. premier’s enthusiasm for heat pumps.

“In our province, they don’t work particularly well, not below minus-25 (temperatures),” Smith said. “You can’t get insurance without having a backup to your heat pump and so it’s not really a credible option in our province.”

All the federal heat pump push and the pause on a heating oil carbon tax is doing is “causing unfairness, making life less affordable and really harming our most vulnerable as we get into the winter season,” Smith said.

Houston said all Canadians have to heat their homes and he is sympathetic to the call from Canadians outside of Atlantic Canada for the federal government to extend the carbon tax pause to all modes of home heating, not just on furnace oil and not just for Atlantic Canadian residents.

On Monday afternoon in Ottawa, MPs defeated by a 186-135 vote a non-binding motion from the Conservatives that called on Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to extend the carbon tax pause on home heating oil to all forms of home heating.

Saskatchewan Premier Scott Moe said about 85 per cent of the people in his province heat their homes with natural gas and the remainder largely use propane or electric heat.

“The right thing to do is for the Canadian government, in fairness to all Canadian families, to extend this carbon tax pause to home heating oil but also extend it to other forms of heating sources that we are using across this nation,” Moe said.

“It just to some degree speaks to the inherent unfairness to the decision that has been made and I would ask the federal government respectfully to revisit this decision.”

If the federal government doesn’t take that step, Moe said the Saskatchewan government will in effect reduce the carbon tax on all sources of home heating for its residents.