CARNEY VS POILIEVRE VS TRUDEAU
Ex-BOC governor Carney questions carbon price break on home heating oil
The Canadian Press
Mark Carney pressed for Canada to stick with predictable climate policy as he questioned the federal government's move to lift the carbon price on home heating oil.
The former central banker, who has long been rumoured to be a possible future Liberal leadership candidate, says he would have looked for different ways to provide financial support to Canadians other than the government's chosen path.
But Carney, the United Nations special envoy on climate action and finance who was speaking at a net-zero conference in Ottawa, also says no other government and prime minister in Canadian history has done more on climate and he applauds parallel moves to help households transition to greener heating alternatives.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's announcement last week to increase the carbon price rebate for rural Canadians and lift the price on home heating oil for the next three years marks the first time the Liberals have retreated in any way on their carbon pricing policy.
Affordability concerns have hit the party's polling numbers in four Atlantic provinces, where about one-third of homes still use heating oil, a far higher proportion than the rest of Canada, but Trudeau has denied the pricing change was about saving Liberal seats.
The government also announced it was expanding incentives for home heat pumps, which is set to begin as a pilot project in Atlantic provinces.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 31, 2023.
Poilievre calls on Liberals to exempt all forms of home heating from carbon price
, The Canadian Press
Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre is calling on the Liberals to exempt all forms of home heating from the carbon price, after Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced a temporary exemption that only applies to home heating oil.
The federal government announced last week that it is increasing the carbon price rebate for rural Canadians and lifting the carbon price off home heating oil entirely for the next three years.
Poilievre wrote a letter to Trudeau on Sunday urging the government to expand the exemption to all forms of home heating, including natural gas, which is more common in Western Canada.
"In pausing the tax on home heating oil until after the election, however, you plan to keep the tax on lower-emitting natural gas heat for which bills will be jumping even further in mere weeks as it gets colder," wrote Poilievre.
"That is why common sense Conservatives are offering our full co-operation to pass an emergency bill tomorrow to axe the carbon tax on all forms of heat before winter heat bills hit Canadians next month."
The carbon price is intended to make fossil fuels more expensive as an energy source, to encourage people to find cleaner alternatives.
But Trudeau said last week it had become clear that wasn’t happening when it came to heat pumps, in part because it takes time and money to make the switch, so giving people more time to make the switch before paying the carbon price was a good choice.
The changes to the carbon pricing regime come as affordability concerns leave the Liberal party flailing in the polls in Atlantic Canada, and one of Trudeau's Atlantic cabinet ministers suggested politics were at play in the decision.
In an interview with CTV News on the weekend, Rural Economic Development Minister Gudie Hutchings said the Liberals' Atlantic caucus pushed for the changes to home heating oil. Most Atlantic Liberals MPs stood behind Trudeau as he made the announcement on Oct. 26.
Hutchings suggested that perhaps Prairie provinces should elect more Liberals to push for exemptions that affect constituents in those provinces, prompting backlash.
"Atlantic caucus was vocal with what they've heard from their constituents, and perhaps they need to elect more Liberals in the Prairies so that we can have that conversation as well," Hutchings said.
The Conservatives jumped all over that comment on Monday, calling it proof that the carbon tax was never an environmental plan, but a tax plan.
"And the announcement this week was about the Liberals' plummeting poll numbers, not about doing what is right for Canadians," a statement from the party said.
"Minister Hutchings just said as much when she told Canadians west of Ottawa that they’d need to elect more Liberals to get a reprieve from their punitive taxes."
Liberal House leader Karina Gould said the Conservatives know that the carbon price comes with a rebate program to offset the increased cost, while still providing an incentive to cut fossil-fuel use. That's because the rebates remain intact even if you cut down on your fossil-fuel use and therefore pay less carbon price.
"The leader of the Opposition knows that Canadians who live in jurisdictions where the price on pollution applies get over $1,000 a year from the government of Canada to fight climate change," said Gould, referring to Poilievre.
"When it comes to the Conservatives, they want to take that $1,000 out of the pockets of Canadians."
Gould also said Liberal climate policy is working, noting that Canada's emissions were 53 million tonnes lower in 2021 than they were in 2019, or the amount produced by 11 million cars over a year.
"While they keep their heads in the sand and pretend that climate change isn't real, we're gonna fight climate change and we're gonna help Canadians with affordability."
The carbon pricing change also sparked backlash from premiers of provinces where residents rely more on natural gas for home heating and therefore would still have to pay the carbon price.
On Monday, Saskatchewan Premier Scott Moe threatened that SaskEnergy will stop collecting the carbon price on natural gas, effective Jan. 1, if the federal government does not extend the exemption to all forms of home heating.
"The prime minister chose to make life more affordable for families in one part of the country, while leaving Saskatchewan families out in the cold. How is that fair to families here in our province?" Moe said in a video posted to X, formerly known as Twitter.
"You heard them. The carbon tax isn't about reducing emissions, it's punishment for not voting Liberal. There are no words to describe how absurd and damaging this is to our confederation," Smith posted on X.
Statistics Canada reports that in 2021, only three per cent of households nationally relied on home heating oil, while 44 per cent used natural gas and 40 per cent used electricity.
But the regional variation is large. Four in 10 households in Prince Edward Island use heating oil, as do one in three in Nova Scotia, while that falls to less than five per cent in Quebec and Ontario and to virtually zero in Western Canada. About eight in 10 households in Alberta and Saskatchewan use natural gas, as do two-thirds of homes in Ontario, and about half in both Manitoba and B.C.
From an emissions perspective, home heating oil produces about 42 per cent more greenhouse-gas emissions than natural gas to get the same amount of energy, according to data from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 30, 2023.
With files from Mia Rabson.
Trudeau rolls back carbon plan under
pressure from voters
, Bloomberg News Oct 26, 2023
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau suspended a carbon price on oil used for home heating, bowing to political pressure in Canada’s eastern provinces just months after the tax came into effect.
Oil is used to heat a small fraction of Canadian homes, but it’s a more important energy source for the Atlantic region’s 2.6 million residents. Trudeau said the three-year pause on the pollution levy will give those people time to switch over to electric heat pumps.
“We are switching to heat pumps off home heating oil, as a region in Atlantic Canada and as a country,” Trudeau said on Thursday.
The announcement represents a partial climbdown on one of Trudeau’s signature climate policies. Trudeau’s Liberal Party has been sinking in the polls — partly because of the rising cost of living — and energy costs are one reason it appears politically vulnerable in Atlantic Canada, where the federal carbon price just came into effect this summer. His chief rival, Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre, has been drawing crowds with “Axe the Tax” rallies in the region.
The Liberals hold 24 of the 32 House of Commons seats in Canada’s four easternmost provinces.
Trudeau also announced a pilot project in the region to install free heat pumps for people with incomes at or below the median. The government will increase the size of carbon rebate checks for people living in rural Canada.
“If you live in a rural community, you don’t have the same options that people who live in cities do. We get that,” the prime minister said. “So this is more money in your pocket to recognize those realities even as we continue to fight climate change and build a stronger economy.”
Trudeau’s government began implementing the carbon price in 2016 to give people incentives to reduce fossil fuels. He insisted on Thursday the three-year suspension would help his government reach its climate goals, because it would help people afford the move to heat-pump technology.
However, Dale Beugin, executive vice-president of the Canadian Climate Institute, said the move introduces uncertainty to Canadian climate change policy. “It sends the signal to emitters — and investors — that policy can be weakened in the future, diluting the carbon price’s effectiveness in driving the long-term, low-carbon investments required to reduce emissions,” he said in a statement.
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