Federal Conservatives launch new push to axe carbon tax with Atlantic focus

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OTTAWA • The federal Conservatives are launching another all-out push to pressure the Trudeau government into axing its looming carbon tax hike.

With MPs returning to Ottawa after a two-week break, the Conservatives plan to force two votes ahead of the April 1 increase.

They’ve also called for an emergency debate.

That’s as criticism of Ottawa’s price on carbon grows in Atlantic Canada with Newfoundland and Labrador Liberal Premier Andrew Furey and New Brunswick Liberal Opposition Leader Susan Holt calling for a stop to gas price hikes.

It’s also after Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre spent the weekend hosting “Axe the Tax” rallies in Atlantic Canada, with large crowds in Fredericton and Halifax.

That led Poilievre to lead question period on Monday with an antidote he picked up while in New Brunswick.

“This prime minister is promising a cruel April Fools Day joke,” Poilievre said of the carbon tax that’s about to jump from 14.3 cents a litre on the price of gasoline to 17.6 cents on April 1. “This at a time when the prime minister has forced 50 families at CFB Gagetown, military families, to go to food banks.

“Two million Canadians a month going to those same food banks.”

A Conservative Ontario MP posted to social media a video over the weekend alongside Oromocto Food Bank executive director Jane Buckley who said 40 to 50 families of serving military members are using the food bank.

Buckley states in the video that it began during the pandemic and numbers have only increased.

“Canadians can’t afford this,” Poilievre wrote in a letter to House of Commons Speaker Greg Fergus, then citing recent polling data and criticism from seven premiers in a call for an emergency debate on the carbon tax.

“That’s why 70 per cent of people oppose Justin Trudeau’s plan to hike the tax and 70 per cent of provincial premiers, including the Liberal Premier of Newfoundland and Labrador, have joined the common sense Conservative movement in demanding Trudeau spike the hike.

“Despite this growing carbon tax revolt unfolding before him, Trudeau has said that he is still planning on moving ahead with his tax hike.”

Meanwhile, the Conservatives have already announced plans to use their two allocated opposition days this week to push forward votes in the House of Commons over the carbon tax.

The party has opposition days on Tuesday and Thursday, meaning votes could come on Wednesday and Thursday evening.

The results are non-binding on the government.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has remained adamant there will be no further carve outs to the government’s price on carbon.

That was after several New Brunswick MPs successfully pushed for a three-year pause to the carbon tax on home heating oil.

It’s a policy that benefits any household across the country using fuel oil, but one that/Brunswick News disproportionately benefited Atlantic Canadians, with Trudeau announcing the change in Ottawa last October flanked by members of the Atlantic Liberal caucus.

On Monday, Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland stood to respond to Poilievre.

“We will take no lessons from the Conservatives when it comes to supporting the vulnerable in our country,” she said. “This is the party that wants to cut the child benefit, this is the party that wants to cut support to our seniors, this is the party that wants to cut early learning and child care which supports so many families.

“They’re opposed to dental care, they’re opposed to pharmacare.”

Poilievre called it “fear and falsehoods.”

Freeland shot back that’s what the Conservative leader “traffics in every single day.”

“At least he’s consistent,” she added. “He wants to cut, cut, cut the support that Canadians get and he wants to cut the support that Canadian families are getting from the price on pollution.”

New Brunswickers will receive in April a quarterly carbon tax rebate cheque, just as the tax inches up.

It means $190 for a family of four and $95 for individuals in New Brunswick.

That’s $760 for a family of four over the next year, and $380 for individuals. It’s a figure that increases to $912 for families and $456 for individuals who live in rural areas, which is much of the province.