'Do you feel it is fair to continue paying the carbon tax...？'
Episode Stats
Words per Minute
203.37349
Summary
The Supreme Court of Canada has ruled that the federal government has the power to set a carbon tax on all types of home heating in Canada, but Prime Minister Justin Trudeau wants to exempt one type of heating oil from the carbon tax.
Transcript
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If you're going to have a federal government asserting that they have to have this power
00:00:03.720
so that everybody is treated equally, and then they don't treat everyone equally,
00:00:07.560
it seems to me that that's something we should go back to the court and ask them whether or not
00:00:10.880
they want to reconsider whether this is an appropriate use of the federal powers.
00:00:18.400
I would rather the federal government accept that if this is a painful tax going into winter
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for Atlantic Canadians, it's a painful tax going into the winter for everyone,
00:00:26.440
and just make sure that he does the right thing and takes the tax off for all types of home heating in every province.
00:00:33.140
Mo acknowledged that what he was doing probably wasn't in keeping with the law.
00:00:40.620
I watched his three-minute video, and he said he wouldn't normally feel like he was pressed to do that
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because we do have a Supreme Court decision that does give the federal government the power to set a federal carbon price.
00:00:51.240
And it's the federal government, I think, who's not living up to the spirit of what they said to do.
00:00:57.220
And I wouldn't ask our private sector operators to be in a position where I'm asking them to be out of compliance with the law.
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I would just prefer for the federal government to do the right thing.
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The federal government has to create tax fairness.
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They have to put a reprieve on the carbon tax on all home heating in all provinces, on all sources of heating.
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Otherwise, you're going to see these kinds of actions taken by the provinces who can.
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We're all suffering from the same acceleration in the cost, the same pressures during winter.
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And so I hope that the prime minister does the right thing.
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And if he was prepared to give an exemption on one type of home heating oil that benefited one region of the country,
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With us, an industry to reduce emissions in a different way and transition to different fuels,
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because it's not the choice of Alberta citizens.
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I mean, that's the only option they really have is home heating by natural gas.
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So I would hope that the prime minister would do the right thing and acknowledge that
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rather than allow for these pockets of inequality to crop up all over the country.