As the Official Opposition, we Conservatives tabled the following motion in the House:
鈥淭hat, in the opinion of the House, given that the government's tax increases on gas, home heating and, indirectly, groceries, will fuel inflation, and that the Parliamentary Budget Officer reported the carbon tax costs 60% of households more than they get back, the government must eliminate its plan to triple the carbon tax.鈥�
The Trudeau Liberal Government plans to raise the carbon tax from the current level of $50 a tonne to $170 a tonne by 2030, with increases each and every year even though in 2019 the Liberals promised the plan would not increase the price (carbon tax) post-2022. The Supreme Court of Canada has confirmed that the federal government can impose its own carbon tax as a backstop. This is a problem. Higher gas prices harm household budgets, it also increases transportation costs and in turn raises prices on groceries and other consumer goods 鈥� all increasing inflation.
Earlier this year the Bank of Canada stated: 鈥渋f the charge (carbon tax) were to be removed from the three main fuel components of the consumer price index (gasoline, natural gas and fuel oil) it would reduce the inflation rate by 0.4 percentage points. In other words, if that policy had come into effect at the start of the year, January鈥檚 inflation rate would have been 4.7% instead of 5.1%.鈥�
As the Official Opposition we are calling on this Trudeau Liberal government to stop its planned tripling of the carbon tax.
Gerald Soroka,
Yellowhead MP
