Carbon Tax 2.0: Making your life more expensive

By Damien Kurek, Battle River-Crowfoot

Canada’s Conservatives have spent a lot of time talking about the carbon tax, its effect on the cost of living, and how it is ineffective at reducing emissions while punishing regular Canadians. In an implicit acknowledgment that their carbon tax isn’t working, Justin Trudeau’s Liberals are trying to sneak through another tax on fuel.

That tax recently underwent an analysis of its cost, and the numbers are not good. That analysis, done by the Parliamentary Budget Office (PBO), of the “Clean Fuel Regulations,” confirms what Conservatives have long suspected. The estimate is that with the newly implemented 2nd carbon tax, we will pay up to $1,157 more per year. That is in addition to raising the first carbon tax up to $0.41/litre, and thousands per year. With the two taxes combined, Albertans are expected to pay $3,930 more in environmental taxes alone each year.

While the first tax adds costs to everything… like groceries, travel, utilities, and other essentials that Albertans must pay for, the ‘Carbon Tax 2.0’ will add costs to every litre of fuel and add cost to everything that is transported in Canada, and ultimately makes life more expensive by inflating costs at every step of the supply chain.

On a loaf of bread, for example, Canadians pay a carbon tax on the inputs to grow the grain and harvest it. The carbon tax adds unnecessary costs to the transportation, heating, and storage of the grain. Additionally, fuel is taxed on the equipment to process wheat into flour, bake it into bread and transport it to the warehouse and then to the store. Every step of the process adds to the costs Canadians have to pay, and it gets progressively worse with each planned tax hike. And what is most frustrating is that rising costs are not a by-product of the tax plan, it is the central theme of it!

Food security and energy security are very tightly linked. The reality is that if we are not very careful, food insecurity will increase at an exponential rate. A very clear example is granular fertilizer, which is made from natural gas. Increasing taxes on energy will increase food uncertainty, something that Canadians and the world cannot afford. It will cost more to get food to consumers. The PBO (Parliamentary Budget Office) also confirms that the Liberal carbon taxes will shrink our economy.

Additionally, the clean fuel standard use “biofuels” that are made from commodities like corn and canola. The problem also exists that while we are using “food” commodities to power our vehicles, people are starving here and around the world. Something few people account for in the promotion of this additional tax.  

After 8 years of Justin Trudeau’s tax and spend government, Canadians have seen their lives become less affordable and are feeling the financial pain of inflation. In a country as wealthy as Canada, there shouldn’t have to be a choice between heating or eating.

And the Liberals can’t even say the carbon tax has been successful, they have missed every single emissions target since they brought it in… and recently have gone as far as to use the COVID lockdowns as evidence their plan is working.

On June 1st, Conservatives put forward a motion calling on the federal government to acknowledge the failures of the first Liberal carbon tax and immediately cancel their second carbon tax. Every day I hear from constituents who are facing challenges brought on by this cost-of-living crisis that the carbon tax makes worse. Led by Pierre Poilievre, Conservatives will protect our environment through technology and innovation, not punishing taxes. We will axe the carbon tax and bring home affordability for Canadians.

If you have any questions or concerns regarding this column, you are encouraged to write Damien at 4945-50th Street, Camrose, Alberta, T4V 1P9, call 780-608-4600, text 403-575-5625, or e-mail damien.kurek@parl.gc.ca. You can also stay up to date with Damien by following him on social media @dckurek. If you need of assistance regarding a Federal Government program, or need assistance and don’t know where to turn, feel free to reach out to MP Kurek’s office.