Ford’s numbers don’t dissuade Moe
Ottawa’s carbon tax calculations disputed by Ontario, Sask. leaders
REGINA Saskatchewan Premier Scott Moe on Tuesday defended his relationship with Ontario Premier Doug Ford, citing their shared mandate to fight a carbon tax.
Moe also came to Ford’s defence after the Ontario politician put forward falsehoods about the carbon tax during a joint media availability earlier this week.
The two premiers have met twice this month, primarily to attack the federal government’s plan to impose a carbon tax on provinces, including theirs, without an internal price on pollution. “We agree on a number of items, the competitiveness of our industries that we respectively represent, that includes not putting a carbon tax on those industries,” said Moe, adding it also includes taking steps to aligning trade regulations.
During a press availability in Toronto on Monday, Moe stood next to Ford as the Ontario premier put forward at least two falsehoods about the federal carbon tax.
Ford said Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, “is saying he’ll give you ‘X’ amount back, and then he’ll charge you four times more to go into his coffers.”
According to the federal government’s plan, 70 per cent of families are set to receive more in a rebate than what they pay in the new tax.
Ontario’s premier also said “no one knows the average” cost associated with the carbon tax, but that “it’s about $649” on each individual.
Federal documents released last week show the average cost associated with the carbon tax from 2019 to 2022, projecting the average family of four in Ontario will pay an estimated $244 in 2019.
Moe said he was “not going to comment on the things Premier Ford said, outside of the fact that this is an ineffective tax” because he “doesn’t know the situation” with respect to the comments from Ontario’s premier.
But Moe also said he does not accept the numbers that the federal government has put forward.
“The numbers are Canadian averages that they use, they don’t apply to the province of Saskatchewan,” he said.
In Saskatchewan, an average family would pay $403 in carbon taxes, while receiving $598 in rebates.
Asked if his defence against the carbon tax could be damaged by aligning with someone presenting falsehoods about it, Moe said, “Most certainly we are going to meet, and continue to meet with the premier of the largest province in the nation of Canada.”
Moe also stood by his argument that the carbon tax is both a “tax on everything ” and a “vote buying scheme” by the federal government. “It’s ineffective. It doesn’t achieve what it’s set out to do. It doesn’t reduce emissions, it costs families,” he said, adding later it is “most certainly isn’t a consumption tax. It’s a tax on jobs, it’s a tax on families and it’s a tax we just simply don’t need here in the province because it has no environmental outcomes and it moves jobs to areas that aren’t going to charge it.”
Opposition NDP Leader Ryan Meili said the debate over the carbon tax “is poisoned when you don’t actually have agents in that debate (who) are willing to stick to the truth” and that Moe standing next to Ford “is a bad look.”