Juno News - April 25, 2021


Erin O'Toole's climate plan isn't good enough for the media, so why bother？


Episode Stats

Length

8 minutes

Words per Minute

184.55452

Word Count

1,586

Sentence Count

5


Summary


Transcript

00:00:00.000 Aaron O'Toole did a press conference this morning and I put a question to him that I had not heard
00:00:11.000 anyone ask I've been talking about it I have asked for an interview with Aaron O'Toole's office and
00:00:15.460 I've been told we'll get back to you we'll get back to you and after about a week I think it's
00:00:20.000 safe to say I am not going to get an interview at this time but I wanted to ask about this
00:00:24.860 climate plan of his that we talked about on the show last week the too long didn't read version of
00:00:31.020 it is that there is going to be a rewards program of sorts where every time you spend a dollar of
00:00:37.380 tax if you will on well maybe it's not tax we'll get to that in a moment but a dollar of a surcharge
00:00:43.140 on a hydrocarbon based fuel that money will go to a low carbon savings account and that savings account
00:00:50.700 will let you buy green things so government approved expenditures like a bike or a transit
00:00:56.380 pass or a Tesla or a retrofit something or other for your home that's the the shortened version of
00:01:02.500 the Aaron O'Toole climate plan which has decided to pin itself to the Paris agreement so Trudeau's
00:01:09.660 Paris targets which he's now gone above and beyond Aaron O'Toole says he's going to meet the Paris
00:01:14.280 targets and that's the basis of the plan now this comes after Aaron O'Toole signed that carbon tax
00:01:22.100 pledge for the Canadian taxpayers federation during his leadership race in which he said
00:01:26.740 unequivocally no to a carbon tax and you may think it's a semantical discussion and I will say in
00:01:33.540 constitutional law it's actually very relevant whether a government imposed charge is a tax or not
00:01:39.180 but you may think it's just semantics to question whether it's a carbon tax or just a price on carbon
00:01:44.920 a regulatory charge a levy and the reason I think it's important is because of the integrity factor
00:01:51.280 when he says no tax and then goes and proposes a plan that will force consumers to pay more for
00:01:58.440 something that to a consumer is not going to matter it's a tax they're paying more for something it's a
00:02:05.120 tax and I wanted to ask him along that vein whether he views this as a tax the background of this being
00:02:11.800 that for the last six years when the Trudeau government has claimed that its carbon tax is not
00:02:16.140 a tax the conservatives were calling it a carbon tax they weren't buying into this whole oh no no
00:02:21.320 it's not a price it's just a price they're saying no it's a carbon tax so I wanted to ask Aaron about
00:02:25.860 that here was our exchange this morning since 2015 the conservatives have called Justin Trudeau's
00:02:31.440 so-called price on carbon a carbon tax the implication being that if Canadians are forced
00:02:37.120 because of the government to pay more for a product it's a tax with regard to your climate change plan
00:02:42.480 you can see that you are in fact allowing there to be a carbon tax and if not how can you not make
00:02:50.200 that with what conservatives have been saying about Trudeau's price on carbon for the last six years
00:02:54.840 I put forward a plan last week that will end mr. Trudeau's carbon tax and put forward a plan that
00:03:02.560 puts consumers Canadians small business owners farmers in the driver's seat and the fact that
00:03:08.540 not one penny of the price on carbon goes to Ottawa makes it not a tax we've had some people say when you
00:03:18.140 pay a deposit on a bottle and get the deposit back when you recycle the bottle that environmental levy that
00:03:24.240 would probably be the closest comparison to this because consumers are not giving an increasing
00:03:30.960 amount of money away away away to Ottawa mr. Trudeau today is is likely doubling his his tax yet again
00:03:39.460 to make new targets he's making up on the fly so what we've said is Canadians deserve to know what their
00:03:46.760 carbon footprint is the price on carbon which is a change Andrew yes but that will be kept with them
00:03:53.160 and then they will be in the driver's seat with respect to lowering that that carbon footprint
00:03:59.280 over time our plan is modeled to meet our Paris targets but more excitingly to have stronger jobs
00:04:06.900 and investment and that's what we need after the COVID crisis listen I don't like the answer but I will say
00:04:13.820 he answered it clearly and directly which I very much appreciate and I know that Justin Trudeau is not
00:04:20.200 interested in doing that so he answered it clearly I I don't buy into his excuse he said it's like
00:04:25.880 the money you pay for a bottle deposit which I think is kind of stupid in and of itself but the
00:04:32.280 difference between that money and the money that you put into your toolbox account is that the money
00:04:38.320 you spend for a bottle at the liquor store or I think in Quebec when you just buy like a can of pop or
00:04:44.740 something like that is money that you get back as cash when you redeem those you can spend them on
00:04:50.440 whatever you want with the toolbox plan you can only spend them on government approved expenditures
00:04:56.680 so even if that money goes into an account that is yours and has your name on it and doesn't go into
00:05:02.660 general revenue it's still money that you don't quite control as cash which is why it's been described
00:05:09.840 more as a rewards program or a points program of sort and I think that's a bit of an issue here
00:05:15.920 now an interesting point is that Justin Trudeau has moved the goalpost so Aaron O'Toole has agreed to
00:05:21.600 meet the Paris climate targets now those targets would cut emissions by 30 percent below 2005 levels
00:05:28.740 by 2030 and whether you like or dislike the Paris climate accord I've talked about this extensively I
00:05:35.040 won't go into it too much now it was the gold standard the gold standard for countries around
00:05:40.940 the world it's been the gold standard for Canadian climate policy and it's interesting that now that
00:05:46.080 Aaron O'Toole has said that he's going to meet those targets Justin Trudeau has gone beyond this to say
00:05:52.440 oh now now Canada is going to go and reduce their emissions by 40 to 45 percent hey why not go more
00:05:58.020 Joe Biden's going more today China's going more everyone says they can go more it's like an auction of
00:06:04.060 source where everyone just keeps shouting out a number higher than what their colleagues around
00:06:08.120 the world are saying you don't actually have to do it because the nature of these things is that
00:06:12.840 they're 10 20 30 years down the line when your government's not going to be around to be held to
00:06:17.500 account for it but it is interesting that when Aaron O'Toole does put forward a plan that he says
00:06:22.520 will meet these all of a sudden the tone shifts Marika Walsh in the Globe and Mail who I've always
00:06:28.360 gone along with she's a solid reporter but she says after repeatedly dodging questions on whether
00:06:33.980 the conservatives will support the new 40 to 45 percent emission reductions target Aaron O'Toole
00:06:39.760 says his party will meet Canada's previous target to cut emissions by 30 percent again so Trudeau has
00:06:46.180 actually succeeded in changing the narrative just by blurting out a new number like it's price is right
00:06:52.280 and now all of a sudden the one that the conservatives had to be dragged into doing kicking and screaming
00:06:57.860 is not good enough and this is exactly the point this is why I've always said conservatives are not
00:07:04.540 going to win an election on the left's turf conservatives are not going to win by trying to
00:07:10.480 compete in areas that the left dominates because this is what's happening Aaron O'Toole has staked
00:07:15.560 huge political capital on this he has caused a mutiny within his own caucus and from the base of the
00:07:21.960 conservatives because he has gone along with a carbon tax and what thanks does he get less than
00:07:28.800 a week later it's not enough because now the emissions goalposts have been moved and you have
00:07:34.360 to come up with a plan that is going to go to 40 to 45 percent emissions instead of 30 percent he fell
00:07:40.600 for the liberal trap hook line and sinker it's done now the election is going to be about oh why does the
00:07:46.200 conservative plan only want to drop emissions by 30 percent even if that was the one that the
00:07:51.880 intellectuals of the world that the global community agreed on and that has driven Canadian
00:07:58.540 climate policy for the last six years now it's not going to be good enough and I'm amused by this in a
00:08:06.180 way but also angered that these things which you can see from a mile away are not detected by the people
00:08:13.720 that are supposed to know better the people that are supposed to be smart enough to navigate through
00:08:17.760 the political terrain and come up with good policy that is going to be good for the country and also
00:08:22.160 politically saleable and they keep tripping over their own feet if you liked watching this clip of
00:08:28.980 the andrew lawton show true north has lots more for you all over at www.tnc.news