Pressure mounts on Liberals as NDP joins call for summit
Motion seeks federal-provincial meeting over levy
Opposition parties banded together Wednesday to call on the Liberal government to stage a televised, federal-provincial summit on the carbon price within five weeks, the latest shift in the longrunning political battle over Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s signature climate policy.
The demand came through a motion in the House of Commons that was sponsored by Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre, and received support from the Bloc Québécois and New Democratic Party. It passed 172 to 150, with Liberal MPs opposing.
A spokesperson for the Prime Minister’s Office declined to comment.
Although the motion was nonbinding, the joint demand by opposition parties with a majority of seats in the House adds to the mounting pressure over concerns the federal carbon price — which requires provinces to have pricing systems to discourage the use of fuels that are causing the climate crisis — is straining Canadians who are already struggling with inflation and high interest rates.
NDP MP Laurel Collins, whose party is propping up Trudeau’s minority government through a parliamentary alliance, claimed the Liberal government has made consumer carbon pricing the “be all, end all” of climate policies, and suggested the government should strengthen the carbon price for heavy industries while taking serious action to curb emissions. New Democrats are also open to premiers presenting alternative plans to the federal carbon price on consumers, she said.
The NDP premier of Manitoba, Wab Kinew, is pushing for an “exemption” from the federal carbon price because of the province’s abundant clean power and plans to slash greenhouse gas emissions.
In recent weeks, several provincial premiers, including the Liberal leader of Newfoundland and Labrador, failed to prevent Ottawa from raising the national minimum carbon price on April 1. The move added another three cents to the price of gasoline, according to federal statistics, but the Liberal government has noted that quarterly rebates to provinces where the federal carbon price applies — worth $1,130 for an Ontario family of four this year — also went up.
Calls have since shifted to hosting a summit on the carbon price, with Poilievre leading the pressure campaign in the House of Commons this week, with similar demands coming from Alberta Premier Danielle Smith, a fellow staunch critic of the policy.
On Tuesday, former Bank of Canada governor Mark Carney also endorsed the idea, but said provincial opponents of carbon pricing should show up with alternative climate policies that are at least similarly effective. A study published in March by the Canadian Climate Institute concluded that less controversial industrial carbon pricing systems could contribute between 20 and 48 per cent of Canada’s emissions reductions by 2030, while the consumer levy on fuel could contribute between eight and 14 per cent.
Poilievre’s Conservatives have pledged to “axe the tax” on consumer fuel, along with the quarterly rebates to households that pay it.