National Post (National Edition)
N.B. Tories would fight carbon tax
MONCTON, N. B .• New Brunswick’ s Tory leader has joined forces with his counterparts in Ontario, Saskatchewan and Alberta, promising that a government led by him won’t bring in a carbon tax on consumers if elected on Sept. 24.
Progressive Conservative Leader Blaine Higgs said Monday he believes a Tory government would “meet its obligations to the environment” with methods other than raising levies on consumers, but he was not clear in a news release on what precisely that means.
Ottawa has said the provinces must place a levy on carbon that is sufficient enough to meet the federal government plans for carbon reduction.
The federal government has said that if provinces don’t place the levy on consumers aimed at reducing their consumption of fossil fuels, Ottawa will do so, and Ottawa will then have final say in how the revenue-neutral tax is funnelled back to the taxpayers in New Brunswick.
Higgs has been on the record saying he would join with other Conservative governments in opposing Ottawa’s carbon emissions law in the courts.
“A Blaine Higgs government believes we can meet our obligations to the environment without digging deeper into taxpayers’ wallets,” says the news release issued Monday.
“We will develop a comprehensive plan to ensure we are reducing our emissions output and providing incentives for green energy and green technology development.”
The Liberal government in New Brunswick hasn’t imposed a provincial carbon tax on consumers, but it has turned to Ottawa to regulate the industrial side of carbon emissions.
The Liberals are taking a portion of the excise tax on gasoline and are dedicating it toward a climate-change fund, however this approach hasn’t been accepted by Ottawa yet.
Premier Brian Gallant said Monday Higgs’s threat of a legal challenge is unrealistic.
“The court case, we don’t think has much chance of succeeding, which means that Blaine Higgs and the Conservatives are accepting a federal backstop, which I think is a mistake, for us,” he said.
“The plan we put forward will phase out coal by 2030, will ask large corporations who are the largest emitters to pay their fair share when it comes to the emissions they are putting out, and we will ensure there not be one cent more on the consumers of our province.”
Meanwhile, the third-place Green Party launched its platform at its Fredericton headquarters on Monday, with Leader David Coon calling it “Our Pathway for Change.”
It included a wide range of policies aimed at reducing carbon consumption.
A party spokeswoman said the party has already accepted that a federal Liberal plan is going ahead and a Green government would work with the federal government on how the money raised will be spent in New Brunswick.
The party’s campaign platform says there would be a cap set on industrial carbon emissions, major increases to public transportation and support for the building of infrastructure to “support walking and cycling lifestyles.”
The party, which has a single seat in the legislature, would also prohibit the extraction of shale gas, require that half of electricity is produced by renewable energy for 2025, and provide financing to homeowners and businesses to convert from oil and gas to local sources of renewable energy.
Meanwhile, the provincial Liberals said Monday if they’re re-elected they will increase the minimum wage to $14 per hour by 2022.
The first increase would come on April 1, 2019, when a 75-cent raise would increase minimum pay to $12 hourly. The Gallant government has raised the minimum wage four times since 2014, representing a 12.5-per-cent increase.