Prime Minister Justin Trudeau faced a growing backlash on Tuesday over exempting home heating oil from the government’s carbon tax, with Saskatchewan threatening to stop collecting the levy altogether.
Amid calls to provide relief from soaring costs of living, the Liberals last week announced a three-year carbon tax exemption for home heating oil that advantages voters in Atlantic provinces.
Western provinces, which mostly use natural gas to heat homes, cried foul.
The Atlantic region is a Liberal stronghold, but Trudeau’s support in the four coastal provinces has plummeted since June when the carbon tax came into effect there.
The situation was exacerbated by the Rural Economic Development Minister Gudie Hutchings’ comment on CTV’s weekend political talk show, “Question Period,” that Canada’s western provinces “perhaps need to elect more Liberals.”
In Parliament, Conservative Party leader Pierre Poilievre accused the government of “dividing Canadians based on where they live” and urged Trudeau to “take the tax off all so Canadians can keep the heat on.”
Saskatchewan Premier Scott Moe threatened to stop collecting the carbon tax on natural gas, saying the exemption for heating oil effectively excluded his province and created “two classes of taxpayers.”
Trudeau refused to budge, telling reporters in Ottawa: “There will absolutely not be any other carve-outs or suspensions of the price on pollution.”
He justified the exemption on home heating oil, saying those who rely on the fuel are “the most vulnerable, lower income” households that do not have quick and easy access to alternatives.
Ottawa, he said, would provide them with financial assistance to transition during the exemption period to heat pumps.
Rural residents across the country, who have lamented the carbon tax’s disproportionately larger impact on their pocketbooks, have also been offered bigger climate rebates.
According to government data, Canadians burn a lot of fossil fuels for heat, emitting about 37 megatonnes of CO2 per year, or almost six per cent of the nation’s total carbon emissions.
The Trudeau administration has set a target of slashing total carbon emissions by 40 to 45 per cent below 2005 levels by 2030.
The centerpiece of its climate plan is the carbon tax, which is set to incrementally rise to $170 per metric ton by the end of the decade.
Canada represents only 1.6 per cent of global CO2 emissions, but it is among the top 10 largest emitters in the world and one of the highest emitters per capita.
It is also the world’s fourth-largest oil producer.
