Catherine McKenna thinks opposing the carbon tax is like taking money from people
Episode Stats
Words per Minute
190.4021
Summary
In the face of growing opposition to the carbon tax, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Environment Minister Catherine McKenna promise to introduce a federal carbon tax as soon as possible. Andrew Lawton explains why a carbon tax is a bad idea, and why it s time for Trudeau to walk this back.
Transcript
00:00:00.000
it speaks volumes about the priorities of the federal government that the
00:00:05.880
government is willing to go to war just to put a tax on you I'm talking of
00:00:10.400
course about the carbon tax which Jason Kenney the new premier of Alberta has
00:00:14.940
made the first order of business of his government to abolish Jason Kenney's
00:00:19.320
government has already moved forward with legislation to scrap the carbon
00:00:23.480
tax that was put in place by Rachel Notley the former premier of Alberta and
00:00:27.360
what does the federal government do in response well Environment Minister
00:00:31.920
Catherine McKenna says that she is going to put a federal carbon tax in place as
00:00:36.360
soon as possible this has been the federal government's prerogative it
00:00:40.040
claims to in the absence of a provincial carbon tax tax Canadians itself now we've
00:00:45.660
seen this song and dance before we've seen it in Saskatchewan we've seen it in
00:00:48.900
Ontario and now we're seeing it in Alberta which is why Jason Kenney has promised
00:00:52.880
to file yet another constitutional challenge against the federal government
00:00:56.880
but the point that I've made very clear is that with growing opposition to the
00:01:00.840
carbon tax Justin Trudeau should accept that he's lost and walk this back
00:01:04.920
because quite frankly if you're going to pick your hill to die on you don't want
00:01:08.880
it to be taxing Canadians taxing business taxing families but here's where we get
00:01:13.920
into the dishonesty about where the government's priorities really are you see
00:01:18.060
provincial governments and the federal conservatives have been fighting
00:01:20.640
against the carbon tax tooth and nail saying it's a tax on everything a tax on
00:01:25.260
heating your home a tax on buying groceries a tax on filling up your car
00:01:29.220
tank all of that is true but what the federal government has said is that the
00:01:34.740
conservative opposition to the carbon tax is taking money out of people's pockets
00:01:41.300
now these aren't my words I want you to look at this quote from the press
00:01:45.480
secretary to environment minister Catherine McKenna she says that it's like
00:01:49.800
taking money out of people's pockets in reference to the attacks that are being
00:01:54.560
waged against the carbon tax by conservatives and the rationale for this is
00:01:58.980
that because the federal government has put this climate action incentive into your
00:02:03.760
tax returns that you know any opposition to the carbon tax is stealing from you I
00:02:09.120
don't have any idea how one plus one equals zed in this case but this is the
00:02:15.300
argument that the government's trying to make that they're not the ones taking
00:02:18.560
money out of your pockets the conservatives fighting against the tax are well let me
00:02:23.060
tell you something because I'm one of the 97% of Canadians that registered for and
00:02:27.500
got the climate action incentive but this does not mean that money is not being
00:02:31.760
taken out of my pocket I'm being given my own money back and if a government is
00:02:36.920
trying to take money and then give some back to me they're still taking it in the
00:02:41.300
first place so I'm not going to give them brownie points for it but the
00:02:44.660
liberals are trying to play this elaborate shell game with your tax dollars and
00:02:49.160
Canadians can't fall for it a carbon tax is a tax on everything it's a punitive
00:02:55.100
measure against fuel which is necessary in all parts of the country especially
00:02:59.000
rural areas in the north it's punitive against business because businesses have
00:03:03.440
to either absorb it or pass it on to their consumers and it's punitive on
00:03:07.460
families because you cannot go through your life without needing to partake in
00:03:11.480
something that emits greenhouse gas these are not the problems and remember we
00:03:16.280
just had news a few days ago that China has been illegally emitting ozone
00:03:20.660
killing chemicals into the atmosphere and again we're supposed to believe that in
00:03:24.880
Canada our minuscule portion of emissions are supposedly going to cause
00:03:30.260
global emissions to go down when other countries are not playing by the rules now
00:03:35.800
this is not an excuse to do nothing but it's to say that the environment is
00:03:38.940
never going to be saved by taxing families and businesses into the grave and
00:03:42.540
Trudeau and McKenna need to learn that true north is standing up for you to
00:03:46.800
advocate for policy that's going to keep more money in your pocket we can't do
00:03:50.880
this alone if you can spend a couple of dollars a month to join my heritage
00:03:53.940
club you get some great bonuses and more importantly you support independent
00:03:57.560
journalism that is more necessary than ever in Canada today for true north I'm