Trudeau/Guilbeault , how to tax you to death 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.
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.”