Alberta takes Ottawa to court
Episode Stats
Words per Minute
172.31102
Summary
Learn English with Alberta s Premier Rachel Notley. In this episode, Rachel talks about the federal government's decision to exempt heating oil from the federal carbon tax, and why it's unfair for Albertans who rely on natural gas to keep their homes warm in the winter.
Transcript
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It's the end of October, and here in Alberta, the nights are below zero.
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There's snow up on the mountains, and parents are preparing to zip jackets over their kids'
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Halloween costumes. In just a few weeks, winter will be upon us. And Alberta winters are no joke.
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In this province, winter means long nights and freezing temperatures for weeks at a time.
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I'm sure we all remember the polar vortex that swept through our province this past January,
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when daily highs remained around minus 30 degrees and lows were around minus 40 degrees,
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with the wind chill dropping temperatures closer to minus 50. Those temperatures are devastatingly
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and dangerously cold. Home heating is not optional, and in Alberta, that means we rely on natural gas
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not just to keep us warm, but to keep us safe. Winter is coming again, and that means that Alberta
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families will again feel the sting of the federal carbon tax as they heat their homes with natural
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gas. Here in Alberta, we don't tend to think that more taxes are the solution for anything,
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let alone a tax on all the things our citizens need to live and thrive in this cold climate.
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Given the cost of living challenges many households are facing, piling more financial burden onto Canadians
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is simply cruel and punitive. Until recently, the punishment from Ottawa was shared equally across
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the country. At the very least, that equal footing gave Canadians a unified front to push back on the
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federal government. A sense, maybe, that we were all in it together. But a year ago, almost to the day,
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Ottawa announced it was exempting heating oil from the federal carbon tax for three years. Now, that's great
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for the people of Atlantic Canada and Quebec, who have a higher proportion of their citizens who use
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heating oil. But let's be clear, most Albertans don't resent them for it either. Unfortunately, this exemption
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applies to practically no one outside of eastern Canada. Added to that, the carbon tax on natural gas
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is more than triple the cost of natural gas itself. The carbon tax rate is about four cents a gigajoule,
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and gas is selling for $1.25 a gigajoule. Now, we can debate why Ottawa made this decision.
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We may even have a few theories. But whatever their reasons, the outcome is blatantly unfair
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for people in Alberta and other parts of Canada who use natural gas and other fuels to stay warm
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in the winter. From where we're sitting, it looks an awful lot like one more attempt to divide our
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country, to reward one region and punish another. And we're not going to sit back and let this unfair
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carve out disadvantaged Albertans for another winter. And so I'm pleased to announce that this morning,
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Alberta filed an application for a judicial review of the exemption in the federal court.
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We're asking the court to declare the exemption both unconstitutional and unlawful. We hope that
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this will force Ottawa to recognize the burden the carbon tax places on Canadians and eliminate the tax
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altogether. Albertans know we've got their backs on this. Our government has been fighting the federal
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carbon tax since 2019. We even took it to the Supreme Court of Canada in 2021. It was
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wrong when it was made into law, and it's wrong now. The federal carbon tax has always been unfair,
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but the selective way it's being applied now is also unconstitutional. And the impacts on Albertans
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will only get worse as the costs continue to increase. According to their own communications,
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the exemption was intended to lower energy bills for people who use heating oil.
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They're saying in effect that some Canadians deserve lower energy bills, but not all. They're also more
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or less admitting that the federal carbon tax raises costs for households, which confirms what we've been
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saying about it all along. The carbon tax is driving up the cost of everything. Let's take an example from
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our education system. Since the carbon tax was first implemented, Alberta school authorities have paid
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more than $49 million to the federal government without receiving any rebate. By the 2030-2031 school
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year, we are projecting that they'll pay more than $60 million per year. There's a lot our school
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authorities could do with that money. They, for instance, could hire 495 teachers with what they'll
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be sending to Ottawa in 2030. In our health care system, we could hire nearly 1,000 nurses by 2030,
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critical frontline workers, instead of sending that money to Ottawa. Or consider the cost to municipalities.
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In 2023 alone, the city of Calgary could have hired an additional 112 police officers or firefighters for the
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amount that they sent to Ottawa for the carbon tax. Or consider the savings in a time when Canadians are coping
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with levels of inflation that we haven't seen in decades. The carbon tax is adding to inflation. In fact, according
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to the Bank of Canada, the federal carbon tax increases inflation by 0.15% per year, year over
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year. But we also know that the impact that taxes have on inflation, because when we paused the
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collection of our $0.13 per litre provincial fuel tax, we saw inflation slow in our province. We've seen
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the same thing in Manitoba and Saskatchewan. Imagine the impact on inflation if we removed three times that
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amount in 2030. The carbon tax on fuel will reach 39.6 cents per litre. According to the Canadian Energy
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Centre, the carbon tax will account for 24% of annual fuel costs. Imagine the savings to Canadians if their
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bill was a quarter the cost when they filled up. If the federal government is now saying that removing the
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carbon tax on home heating oil will lower costs, then this carbon tax exemption for eastern Canada blows a big
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hole in their justification for the carbon tax. Furthermore, applying it unequally is unconstitutional, and it
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runs counter to Ottawa's own carbon tax legislation. Our end goal is the same as a growing number of Canadians from across the
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country to get rid of the retail carbon tax. If Ottawa won't axe this heartless tax altogether, they can at least play fair when
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imposing it on Canadians. And that's what we'll be heading back to court to achieve.