Juno News - December 20, 2019Trudeau government wants to raise carbon tax and slash rebates
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Summary
Just two months after Justin Trudeau was re-elected, he s already raising taxes on Canadians. In particular, the carbon tax. After a UN summit in Madrid, the new environment minister in Canada, Jonathan Wilkinson, has indicated that the government will hike the tax. That s on the table right now as the government wages its war against climate change.
Transcript
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Just two months after Justin Trudeau was re-elected, he's already raising taxes on
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Canadians. In particular, the carbon tax, the tax on everything. After a UN summit in Madrid,
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the new environment minister in Canada, Jonathan Wilkinson, has indicated that
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the government will hike the tax. That is on the table right now as the government wages
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its war against climate change. Minister Wilkinson said in a post-Madrid summit interview with
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Toronto Star that the most efficient way, those are his words, most efficient way to deal with
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climate commitments and emissions targets is through carbon pricing. And he says that if
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Canada is going to achieve its targets, which needs to happen, he needs to make good on Justin
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Trudeau's promise to rein in our emissions in Canada. This has been the goal. This is what
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the government has put everything on. And even as the government has fought to defend the carbon tax
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in court, it all goes back to these Paris Climate Accord agreements. It all goes back to these
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targets, which by the way, Minister Wilkinson conceded Canada is not on track to meet. We have
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to get to 30% below 2005 levels by 2030. And Canada is projected to fall short of that. Although he says
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that we are going to exceed it, and ultimately by 2050, eliminate annual emissions. Now, if we're
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talking about doing something so drastic in the span of just over 30 years, action taken by the
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government will have to be drastic. We've talked about other reports that have said that carbon tax
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would need to be doubled or even tripled to come close to meeting those long-term targets. The government
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has not yet officially acknowledged that it's entertaining that, but all the experts are saying
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they basically have no other choice but to go down that road. And Wilkinson admits that there's going
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to be a review of the national minimum carbon price. Now, one of the things the government's doing right
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now is penalizing the provinces that are dissenting on the carbon tax, like Ontario, Saskatchewan, Alberta.
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The government has now made them deal with the fact that the rebate is getting slashed. The federal
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government's rebate, which it was using to say that, oh, it's carbon neutral and we're giving the
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money back to the people. Well, they're cutting those for provinces that are fighting the government.
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For example, according to an article in the Canadian press, Saskatchewan had a projected $903 rebate for
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the average family of four. Now the finance department is cutting it to $809. In Ontario,
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the rebate was originally going to be $451. Now it's dropped just a few dollars, but still it's
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dropped to $448. And in Manitoba, a decrease as well. In Alberta, which has now been added into the mix,
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there's going to be a rebate of $888, which was lower than what the government had projected.
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The federal government is punishing people that live in provinces who are standing up for them
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by giving them less of their own money back. And this is apparently going to fight climate change.