Trudeau says Conservatives 'not telling the truth' about the carbon tax

Conservatives across Canada are “misleading” people about the carbon tax, Justin Trudeau has claimed.

Following an announcement about housing in Vancouver earlier today, the prime minister repeated his claim that it’s “basic math” that most Canadians get more in rebates than they pay in carbon taxes.

But he also laid into the Conservative Party – and particularly conservative premiers – for what he claimed was their deception.

“For ideological reasons or reasons of pure partisanship, Conservative politicians across this country are not telling the truth to Canadians,” he said.

“And that’s why I’ve called them out. And that’s why I’m going to continue to call them out, and remind them that if they really don’t like our approach to pricing pollution, they can develop their own approach.”

Seven premiers, including the Liberals’ own Andrew Furey in Newfoundland and Labrador, have asked the prime minister to cancel a planned April 1 increase in the carbon tax.

The federal carbon price will be hiked to 17.6 cents per litre of gas and 15.25 cents per cubic metre of natural gas on April Fools' Day – but rebates will also be increased.

Tory Leader Pierre Poilievre, meanwhile, has put his “axe the tax” and “spike the hike” catchphrases at the centre of his campaign to become Canada’s next prime minister. He has said the tax is making Canadians poorer and the increasing the cost of necessities such as food.

But Trudeau has repeatedly rejected calls to change or drop the controversial tax, suggesting that critics should come up with their own ideas if they don’t like his.

“Conservative premiers would rather complain, and attack, and mislead Canadians for narrow political gain because of both an ideological objection – apparently to fighting climate change – but also through an unwillingness to recognize that we are putting more money in people’s pockets with rebate cheques that Pierre Poilievre wants to take away from Canadians,” he said in Vancouver today.

The Conservatives have rejected this line of argument by the prime minister, stating that if the tax were abolished, Canadians wouldn't have to pay it in the first place, and thus a rebate would become redundant.

Trudeau also pointed to the creation in British Columbia of the first carbon pricing regime.

That, he said, was introduced in 2008 by a “more conservative government” – namely, the BC Liberals.

Trudeau added: “Now, we expect everyone to hit the same level of ambition in the fight against climate change because that’s fair and that’s important if we’re going to actually make a difference in the extreme weather events that we’re seeing across the country and around the world that are coming.”

Canada was responsible for 1.41 per cent of the world’s carbon emissions in 2022, according to the European Union’s emissions database.

China was responsible for 29.16 per cent, while the US, which does not have a carbon tax, was responsible for 11.19 per cent.

Defenders of the tax argue that by making carbon-emitting energy more expensive, people will use it less, and thus carbon emissions will be reduced.