Phillips insists carbon levy will have ‘large rewards’

The Notley government continued to press the case for its new carbon tax Monday, urging Albertans to look past the higher pump prices and focus on a number of forthcoming benefits.

“Albertans are going to start to see the value beyond pipeline approvals with respect to investments in infrastructure, investments in renewables and energy efficiency,” Environment Minister Shannon Phillips, the minister responsible for the climate change office, told a news conference at the legislature.

“These are all things that Albertans have said for a long time they didn’t want to be laggards on anymore. Albertans see the full definition of being an energy province, not just an oil and gas province.”

The NDP has been on the offensive early in the new year to counter consumer grumbling over the increases to heating and transportation fuels that came into effect Jan. 1.

Deputy premier Sarah Hoffman took the spotlight Sunday to reiterate how her government’s climate change moves paved the way for Ottawa’s recent approval of two pipeline projects.

A day later, Phillips’s news conference focused on additional benefits coming in the weeks and months ahead, including the launch of three new energy efficiency programs this spring.

The programs, funded with carbon tax revenue, will include an initiative of “free installation and rebates,” aimed at homeowners, Phillips said.

There will also be a program for businesses, non-profits and other institutions to address heating, cooling, lighting and hot water systems, while a separate pool of funds will be aimed at farms.

Philips said the province plans to eventually invest a total of $645 million in Energy Efficiency Alberta, the new agency that will run the programs. That includes $45 million this fiscal year and $90 million in 2017-18.

Phillips said details of the programs should be released before the spring budget, though she didn’t have a specific date.

She said she expects strong demand from members of the public interested in doing their part to reduce the province’s carbon footprint.

Along with energy efficiency upgrades, Phillips noted carbon tax revenue will also be used to fund green infrastructure projects, lower the small business tax and invest in renewables and other technology designed to help diversify the province’s economy.

As well, rebate cheques will start flowing this month to low- and middle-income families to offset the costs of the carbon tax, she said.

“It’s day two of the carbon levy and the province is still standing,” Phillips said.

“I think it’s important we have the facts out there because there has been so much misinformation … There is no doubt this is a large change for Alberta, but it’s large change with large rewards.”

However Wildrose MLA Don MacIntyre said that if the NDP assumes Albertans will just get used to hurtful new taxes, it’s wishful thinking.

“It is a rather typical move on the part of a socialist government to tax its businesses into insolvency and its people into poverty and then offer us back a crumb or two of our own money and expect us to be grateful,” he said.

MacIntyre, the WIldrose’s electricity and renewables critic, refused to give the government credit for winning the pipeline approvals.