BC United promises to immediately cut carbon tax if elected to government

BC United leader Kevin Falcon has said he would immediately cut the provincial carbon tax on all fuels and stop planned increases if his party wins power.

He said a government he led would eliminate the provincial fuel tax – currently at about 15 cents per litre on gasoline and diesel – and remove the carbon tax on all home−heating fuels.

The pledge comes after Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced a three-year suspension on the federal carbon tax on home heating oil, a policy that does not apply to British Columbia.

Falcon also said a BC United government would remove the carbon tax on farm fuel as a way of lowering costs for farmers, which he said would mean lower grocery costs.

He said if the Conservatives are elected in Ottawa he'll follow their lead and eliminate the tax completely.

Federal Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre has pledged to abolish the federal carbon tax if he's elected prime minister in the next election.

BC United Leader Kevin Falcon supported the tax when he was in the previous BC Liberal government, but said on Tuesday that circumstances have changed.

"If the decision is made to eliminate the (federal) carbon tax, I'm not going to leave BC in a disadvantage position being the only province that is going to have a $95 per tonne carbon tax," Falcon said Tuesday at a news conference.

"We will get rid of the carbon tax in BC," he said.

The BC United leader said people in the province are facing financial struggles, paying among the highest home, rent and fuel costs in North America, and cutting back on the carbon tax would be one of his proposed relief measures.

Falcon said he would cut the province's carbon tax on all fuels and halt planned future increases if elected to form government next year.

BC United would give motorists a break by eliminating the provincial fuel tax, currently at about 15 cents per litre on gasoline and diesel, and remove the carbon tax on all home-heating fuels, including oil, natural gas and propane, he said.

"What we've said is we will do what we have control over, and that's eliminating the provincial taxes that are within our jurisdiction," he said.

He estimated his proposed cuts would have an impact on provincial revenues of almost $5 billion over three years, which is about two per cent of the BC budget.

Premier David Eby called Falcon a "weather vane" during question period in the legislature for changing his previous carbon tax support in favour of shifting federal political winds.

He said the federal Liberals, and now Falcon's BC United, are "flip flopping on the carbon tax."

Eby suggested Falcon is feeling the heat from the new political presence of the BC Conservative Party, which now has two members sitting in the legislature. Both of them are previous members of Falcon's caucus.

"I understand that the member is under a lot of pressure from the Conservative Party," he said. "But standing up, after the summer we had, for British Columbia to be a leader on climate change is an important thing."

Falcon introduced BC's first carbon tax in 2008 under the former provincial Liberal government, but said the tax is getting too expensive for people and it's not resulting in reductions to harmful greenhouse gas emissions.

"There comes a time when you just have to say, 'You know what, what we're doing is not working, in fact it's having negative impacts,'" he said. "We've got to change that."

He added: "To make life more affordable for people, we must make life less expensive — it’s that simple.”

– With files from Canadian Press