Trudeau/ Guilbeault How to hide a new tax When all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s hammer is higher taxes.
People are using too much natural gas? Hit ‘em with a carbon tax.
People like their pick-up trucks and minivans? Throw another tax at ‘em.
People still want Canada’s oil and gas? Swing the tax hammer again.
With Trudeau’s announcement of a cap on the oil and gas sector, Ottawa is now flirting with its third carbon tax.
By 2030, when the fuel regulations are fully implemented, the second carbon tax will add up to 17 cents per litre to the price of gasoline and cost the average family up to $1,157, according to the PBO.
On Dec. 7, Trudeau brought in his third carbon tax through a cap on Canada’s oil and gas industry. The government will cap the industry’s emissions, then force companies to purchase emissions credits to keep producing.
This is known as a cap-and-trade system and it’s a form of carbon tax. The government sets up an artificial market and mandates a certain level of emissions that declines over time. The government-mandated emissions cap determines the carbon tax a company must pay to buy credits.
As the Carbon Tax Center notes, “Politically, cap-and-trade has functioned as a ‘safe harbor’ for politicians who grasp the need to price carbon emissions but cling to the need to ‘hide the price’ to appease interest groups and/or voters.”
We’re already seeing opaqueness from Environment Minister Steven Guilbeault who assures Canadians “the cost of putting in place the regulation” will “come down the road.”