Poilievre urges Trudeau to meet with premiers opposing carbon price
OTTAWA — Prime Minister Justin Trudeau should convene an emergency meeting with the country’s premiers to discuss the federal carbon price, Conservative Pierre Poilievre wrote in a letter Tuesday.
Poilievre circulated the letter following the $15-per-tonne increase to the consumer carbon price that kicked in on Monday.
The scheduled increase added about 3.3 cents more to the carbon price per litre of gasoline. A 50-litre tank will now see a carbon surcharge of $8.80, about $1.65 more than before.
The Opposition leader has spent the past month travelling across the country, including to Liberal- and NDP-held ridings in the Greater Toronto Area, Atlantic Canada and B.C., hosting “axe the tax” rallies.
Poilievre vows to scrap the policy if he becomes prime minister after the next election.
The federal Conservatives have long opposed charging the fuel levy to consumers, as well as businesses.
The party argues it amounts to a tax. Under Poilievre, it has ratcheted up its attacks in an attempt to connect carbon pricing to inflation and the pressures Canadians are feeling.
Trudeau has pushed back against Poilievre’s assertion the carbon price is adding to families’ financial pain.
He says critics, including conservative premiers, are inflating the impact of the fuel levy while pointing to how families receive quarterly rebates to help offset costs. The payments are most generous for low-income households.
In the lead-up to the April 1 increase, Trudeau dismissed calls from seven premiers to cancel it, including from the lone Liberal provincial premier, Newfoundland and Labrador’s Andrew Furey.
All Atlantic premiers requested the pause, along with Ontario, Saskatchewan and Alberta.
Furey had also requested that Trudeau convene an emergency meeting to discuss alternatives.
“You must sit down with the premiers and listen to them,” Poilievre wrote in a letter circulated on social media Tuesday afternoon.
“I am requesting that, within six weeks of receiving this letter, you convene an emergency meeting of Canada’s 14 first ministers to discuss the carbon tax crisis,” he said.
He added: “Included in these discussions should be your willingness to allow provinces to opt out of the federal carbon tax and pursue other responsible ideas for lowering emissions.”
Trudeau’s office was not immediately available for comment.