Province must unite in opposition to the crippling Liberal carbon tax

We simply cannot afford the cost, writes John Liston.

Businesses and household budgets that managed to stay afloat in the pandemic and the oil price crash have been served a new and longer-lasting challenge through Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's recently announced carbon tax hike plan.

The Liberal government's surprise announcement would see the federally imposed carbon tax rise by $15 per tonne annually until reaching $170 per tonne in 2030. Effectively, that means every single litre of gasoline will cost

37.5 cents more at the pump (assuming they actually stop at $170).

This won't just increase the cost of gasoline. The cost of heating a home or business, the cost of keeping the lights on and the cost of anything involving the transport sector will see costs soar. It's recently been projected that the cost of groceries for families will increase by hundreds of dollars in 2021. That trend is likely to continue for years to come with this carbon tax hike.

Alberta's provincial government must fight back. And it's time to be united in doing so.

Premier Jason Kenney and the governing United Conservative Party have been consistent opponents of a consumer carbon tax, from challenging the federal tax in court to imposing restrictions on heavy emitters without punishing everyday Albertans at the pump or checkout line. But these past efforts will be diminished if the Trudeau government succeeds with this hike.

Alberta's Opposition NDP should also oppose this exorbitant carbon tax hike from Ottawa. The NDP, which has lately been vocal on issues regarding the cost of living and the concerns of small businesses, has an opportunity to prove that these concerns are genuine, and not mere opposition posturing.

If Rachel Notley's NDP chooses to stay silent, it will be clear that her party learned nothing from the consequences of their own carbon tax, itself imposed on Albertans during a downturn, and would go along with Ottawa's escalating tax hikes if the choice were up to them.

A surprise $170 per tonne carbon tax leaves no room for neutrality.

The carbon tax hike's case withers when one considers the lives and livelihoods of all the Canadians who aren't part of the laptop class and don't live and work in a downtown core.

Advocates for a carbon tax often say that a carbon tax can change behaviour, but for many working families in many parts of the country, it's not a realistic option to take transit and not yet affordable to get an electric vehicle. It's not an option to not heat your home or business. Businesses still need to transport the goods they produce or rely on goods transported to them, even if that transportation comes with an added expense of 37.5 cents per litre.

Not transporting goods isn't an option; transportation just becomes a more expensive necessity.

The question then is, who picks up the end result of costs being driven up all around?

Some businesses might just turn the lights off for good if the overhead hike becomes too much in an already challenging economy, or they can make up for the increased overhead by raising prices on their own customers, or they can try absorbing the cost and thereby shrink the margins on their own profitability.

However, these are all losing options.

While farmers are given exemptions to the carbon tax, their very business model precludes them from the stated revenue neutrality claims, not to mention the competitive disadvantage of having higher operating costs compared to farms in jurisdictions without a carbon tax: Australia, Brazil, Russia, the U.S. and others.

Most Canadians do care about our natural environment and the world that this generation will leave behind. Advocates for a consumer carbon tax often say that the economy and environment should go hand in hand and not be pitted against one another — yet that is exactly what this carbon tax hike does.

It's punitive, punishing everyone instead of focusing on actual heavy emitters. The Trudeau government's announcement was detached from the reality of challenges facing ordinary families and businesses reeling from the impacts of the pandemic.

It is now incumbent on our provincial governments to stand up for everyone overlooked by policy-makers in downtown Ottawa and Gatineau.

We need to see the NDP and UCP united in doing so.