In the midst of an economic crisis, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is getting ready to introduce his second carbon tax. And it's coming at the worst possible time for Canada's economy. In this episode, we talk to Franco Terrazano, the Alberta Director of the Canadian Taxpayers Federation, and Aaron Woodrick, the editor-in-chief of The Sun, about the impact of Trudeau's new regulations.
00:00:00.000Yeah, I'm sitting today with Franco Terrizano. He's the Alberta Director of the Canadian Taxpayers Federation and him and his compatriot Aaron Woodrick wrote an op-ed in The Sun recently about Trudeau's second carbon tax. Like the first one wasn't bad enough. We've got us on the pipe that is really sounds terrifying when the numbers are crunched and people are really paying attention to what's going on there. So let us know, Franco, what did you guys write about and what are we looking forward to here?
00:00:27.760Well, first, thanks for having me on, Corey. And, you know, it is bad enough that Trudeau is making things more expensive for us to heat our homes and fuel our cars with his first carbon tax. And, you know, it's also bad enough that Trudeau hiked his current carbon tax during the midst of an economic crisis. But Trudeau is getting ready to hammer struggling families and struggling businesses with his second carbon tax.
00:00:49.900And it looks like the feds are going to be doing that through a regulation that will require producers to reduce the carbon content of their fossil fuels. And if producers can't meet the requirements, they're going to have to pay a whopping $350 per ton carbon tax. Now, this is going to harm producers for sure, but it will also make its way down to many businesses, right? Many struggling small businesses and many struggling families will also have to bear the cost of Trudeau's second carbon tax.
00:01:17.040Well, yeah, the cost of energy impacts everything, every consumer good, every utility, everything we do, we have to pay for it in the end, the consumer gets it. And boy, we're already reeling pretty badly. This is going to hit pretty hard. How many times you're seeing?
00:01:31.700Well, you know, this could lead to 10s of 1000s of job losses across Canada. So, so of course, this is going to really harm Canada's economy the worst possible time, it'll be another thing that deters investment. And, you know, not only will it harm all Canadians, but it's going to have a major impact on Alberta as well.
00:01:49.700A report from the Canadians for affordable energy, I mean, they're expecting that it could be almost 7,000 job losses in Alberta from this, right? It could increase the cost of gasoline by 10%. It could increase the cost of natural gas by about 4%. And of course, these costs are coming at the worst possible time.
00:02:08.820You know, think of think of a family who is already eating away at their savings right now, while they're going to have less money because of Trudeau second carbon tax, or think about a mom or a dad who may be working two jobs.
00:02:20.820Well, you know, this is going to increase the cost of their fuel when they fuel up between job number one, job number two, and picking up the kids, or think about the, the many small businesses that we have right now who are struggling, and who don't know if they're ever going to survive this economic downturn.
00:02:35.820Well, now their natural gas costs are going to be going up. And that's, that's less money that they're going to have to reinvest in their business and to reinvest in their workers. So these costs, I mean, you really couldn't think of a worse possible time for Trudeau to impose not just one carbon tax, but but now his
00:02:49.820carbon tax, but but now his second carbon tax.
00:02:51.820And I imagine, I mean, they seem to have cloaked it, they're calling it a green plan or something of the sort that that's typical of them. I'm glad you brought that up, though. This isn't, you know, they like to frame it there. Oh, we're just going after the big guys, we're just going to tax those who can afford it. In the end, it's the little guys who end up carrying the weight of this sort of thing. So at what stage is this? Is it going through Parliament? Is there going to be discussion? It's kind of a crazy time to tell what's happening in there anymore?
00:03:16.820Yeah, well, it is it is a crazy time for sure. But we're expecting the regulations to be to be released this fall. I mean, we don't know exactly what's going to be happening. But we're keeping an eye out on the Canada Gazette just to see when the regulations are announced. But you know what, you know, they might be talking about how this is, this is going to be helping the environment. But let's get something straight. I mean, this is going to be all economic pain without environmental gain. You know, Canada's history with the carbon tax has shown us just that, you know, let's just look over to our
00:03:46.800neighbours in British Columbia, they have the highest carbon tax in Canada. But we're still seeing emissions rising, right? And if we're going to be talking about climate change or dealing with these types of environmental issues, well, you have to take a global look at this. Canada makes up about 1.5% of global emissions. So even if Trudeau's second carbon tax grinded our economy to a screeching halt, I mean, it really wouldn't have much of an impact on the global environment. And I mean, that's a point that Trudeau himself
00:04:13.800has acknowledged. So I mean, what are we doing here? You know, why do we continue to shoot our own ourselves in the foot and continue to poke holes in our own economy?
00:04:24.800It's frightening, but they seem to be beholden as well to an NDP breathing down their necks, whether it's a Liberal initiative or perhaps something from Mr. Singh. It's just pounding on us on one level after another level. So what can Canadians, taxpayers, Albertans do to try and stem this off, perhaps?
00:04:42.800Well, I mean, to your point, this really is a another blow to Alberta's battered economy, right? We've already seen, you know, the first carbon tax, we saw the feds reject Northern Gateway, we saw them move the regulatory goalposts on Energy East, the normal pipelines law, the discriminatory tanker ban, it almost just seems like it's one thing after another from the federal, the federal government in Ottawa here. And now how can we push back, right? Well, first credit where credit's due. It's good to see Kenny,
00:05:11.800Kenny, challenging Trudeau's, I guess we have to call it first carbon tax. Now, we're at the Supreme Court of Canada. So we're awaiting those results. But in the in the short to medium term, I think the best way that we can push back against the feds for Alberta is that equalization referendum that that Kenny is promising to hold next year. I mean, look, we have sent more than $600 billion more to the feds.
00:05:35.800Then we've gotten back since the early 1960s. Now, of course, that's not all through equalization. But through equalization, I mean, we're directly subsidized that seem intent on roadblocking our development. And we know with a successful equalization referendum, which I'm confident that Alberta will have, you know, that's our opportunity to push the feds and the other provinces to the negotiating table.
00:05:59.800Now, the equalization referendum, it won't solve all of our problems, right? There's no doubt about that. But I do see that as our crucial first step in this fight for fairness.
00:06:09.380Yeah, it would certainly at least open up the broader discussion of what equalization or the other transfers or our return on our tax dollars are, which is a big, complicated issue and one where we're we're on the losing end of the stick and continuing to be.
00:06:21.420So where could people find more information on what you guys are up to and what's coming down the pipe?
00:06:27.580Well, hey, please, please go to taxpayer.com. If you want to look at all the issues that we're diving into, go to taxpayer.com and then check out our newsroom.
00:06:35.380But specifically for this campaign, you know, we just put up a petition to stop Trudeau's second carbon tax. You can find that also at taxpayer.com and then just click on the petitions tab.
00:06:44.960Great. Well, thanks for coming on with me and thanks for exposing this tax coming down the line to us and giving the means for people to push back on it.
00:06:51.900I look forward to talking to you again soon and we'll see how else we can help protect Albertans from that Ottawa assault.