Not all gloom, doom at gas pumps for Nova Scotians, FBI say
Nova Scotians will see a significant increase at gas pumps and on the doorstep for heating oil on Saturday when the federal carbon tax is imposed.
But the carbon tax should not be confused with the federal government’s new default clean fuel rules.
They’re two different things, “very much so,” Bruce Cheadle, a spokesman in the office of Federal Environment Secretary Steven Guilbeault, said Monday.
“Clean fuel regulations have been in development for seven years, seven years, so this is not a surprise.”
The Atlantic is premiering a second time since development of clean fuel standards regulations began in 2016 and last week called for a pause in regulations that will be implemented on Saturday, to coincide with the application of the federal carbon tax.
Nova Scotia Prime Minister Tim Houston and the other Atlantic premiers sent a correspondence to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on Friday calling for a meeting as soon as possible to discuss what they call the disproportionate impact of the federal government’s new clean fuel standards on Atlantic Canadians.
The PMO said Monday it is always focused on working with the provinces to make life more affordable for Canadians while taking action on climate change that is causing devastating extreme weather, such as Hurricane Fiona and unprecedented wildfires.
Cheadle said regulations have already been delayed by two years to allow companies like Irving to invest in cleaner technologies to meet federal requirements to gradually reduce the carbon content of their fuels, leading to a drop of about 15 percent below 2016 levels in carbon emissions. intensity – the amount of carbon released during the production and consumption of gas and diesel – in 2030.
Credit markets
“Those (business) investments can then be applied to a credit market”, which opens on July 1. “The price of those credits will be determined in the coming weeks and months. Companies have until 2024 to indicate which credits they claim.”
Cheadle said the federal government maintains that while the credit market sorts itself out and refiners find the most efficient and best way to comply with regulations or purchase credits, there is no reason for a fuel price increase from July 1.
“There is nothing in the regulations requiring an increase in fuel prices,” he said.
In the long term, until 2030, refineries will be subject to a certain compliance cost.
read more
“It starts slowly and the strictness of the regulations increases until 2030, when there must be a 15 percent reduction in greenhouse gases from fuel production.
“We don’t feel there is any justification for a July 1 price increase.”
In a May press release, the Canadian Taxpayers Federation also called on the Prime Minister to abandon his plan to impose a second carbon tax on July 1.
“Canadians need a new carbon tax like we need a kick in the head,” said Franco Terrazzano, federal director of the Taxpayers’ Federation.
Hundreds of dollars
“The parliamentary budget officer is clear: Trudeau’s second carbon tax (clean fuel rules) will cost families hundreds of dollars.”
The parliamentary budget official estimates that by 2030, the second carbon tax will cost the average Nova Scotia family $635 a year and raise gas prices by as much as 17 cents per gallon.
Cheadle said there is a range within which gas price increases due to clean fuel regulations will fall by 2030, but he said it could be as low as a six cent increase in seven years.
“Frankly, the price of gas goes up and down by six cents a gallon over a long weekend,” Cheadle said.
There are no consumer rebates with the clean fuel rules and it will be added on top of the current tax, the taxpayer federation says, adding that by 2030 the two taxes will raise the price of gas by about 55 cents per liter.
Cheadle said any costs imposed on the suppliers will be felt later, not July 1.
However, the true carbon tax costs are tangible and immediate.
14.3 cents per litre
The carbon tax for gasoline will be 14.31 cents per liter in Nova Scotia and 17.39 cents per liter for diesel and light fuel oil, including heating oil.
Liberal leader Zach Churchill said in a press release Monday that the reality is that the Houston government has failed to negotiate a better alternative to the carbon tax, scrapping the previous cap-and-trade program that did more for cost the environment and people less, the Liberals said in the release.
“The result of Prime Minister Houston’s political games has been the largest increase in gas prices in the country, costing Nova Scotians even more at an already difficult time,” Churchill said.
Instead of introducing affordability measures to offset the largest increase in gas prices in the country, the Houston government has predictably blamed the federal government for the carbon tax, Churchill said.
Cheadle and the federal ministry have long said the federal stimulus rebate program will result in a family of four in Nova Scotia receiving quarterly payments of $248 per quarter starting in mid-July, and that the majority of Nova Scotians will get back more money than they pay carbon tax.
“Canadians need another carbon tax like we need a kick in the head.”
– Franco Terrazzano, federal director of the Canadian Taxpayers Federation
In a March report, parliamentary budget officer Yves Giroux refuted claims that it would be better, finding that Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island and Newfoundland and Labrador would follow the same trajectory as other Canadian provinces, representing a net loss for most individuals and households to average when the carbon tax and incentive rebate program are introduced.
Cheadle said the discrepancy stems from the parliamentary budget officer’s way of assessing programs without taking into account the costs of climate action.
“They assume a scenario where you do nothing to combat climate change and do nothing to avert things like (Hurricane) Fiona and they just project that into the future,” he said.
When asked why the introduction of the carbon tax and the stimulus rebate are necessary when they effectively cancel each other out, Cheadle said everyone in similar situations gets the same rebate check, but the purpose of the tax is to provide an incentive to use less fuel.
“Everyone knows the price of gas,” he said. “You may not know the price of a loaf of bread or a liter of milk, but you know the price of gas, it’s on every corner, it’s there and it’s a very, very visible price signal. Even if people know they’ll get the money back, they’re pretty damn mad when they see that price go up and they start using less. You are going to be aware of how much you are using when you see that higher price signal.
