Liberals defy logic with continued carbon tax hikes
By Lethbridge Herald on April 6, 2024.
FROM THE HILL
Rachael Thomas – Conservative Member of Parliament for Lethbridge
April Fool’s Day has come and gone, and with it, one of the cruelest jokes this government has sprung so far. Amid one of the worst affordability crises this country has ever seen, the Liberals have chosen to ignore the cry of Canadians and increase their punitive carbon tax by 23 percent.
Canadians already feel squeezed, but their concerns fall on deaf ears in Ottawa. Two-thirds of Canadians cite the carbon tax as an added burden they cannot afford, according to a poll by Angus Reid Institute.
Every month, my staff and I hear from hundreds of constituents who are struggling to pay their rent, put food on their tables, or fuel up their vehicles. Those living on a fixed income, such as seniors and those living with a disability, are among the hardest hit. People often come into my office with their home heating bill to show me the carbon tax line. The amount is often just as much or more than the actual cost of the natural gas they used for the month.
It’s ludicrous.
While the Prime Minister can pat himself on the back for “doing something” to appease his enviro-activist supporters, he kneecaps the agriculture sector and further punishes Canadians who are already having a hard time feeding their families. Trudeau fails to understand that if you tax the farmer who makes the food and the trucker who ships the food, the tax ultimately lands with the person who buys the food.
Trudeau knows that Canadians despise the carbon tax. However, rather than offering the relief families desperately seek by scrapping the tax altogether, the Liberals have opted to spend taxpayer money on consultants to “rebrand” it to make it more acceptable.
In a desperate attempt to save face amidst plummeting popularity, the Prime Minister has decided to rename the carbon tax and spin it as the “Canada Carbon Rebate.”
It is the equivalent of putting lipstick on a pig.
To top it off, the Liberal government would have Canadians believe that despite all evidence to the contrary, they are somehow better off with the carbon tax because it results in a rebate that is supposedly greater than the amount of the tax.
The Parliamentary Budget Officer would disagree. According to him, people pay far more tax than they ever get back in the suggested rebate. In Alberta, residents are worse off by nearly $1,000 per year. For most households, this is a lot of money. How much pressure would it alleviate for families if they were able to keep more of their hard-earned paycheque instead of paying the costly carbon tax?
Trudeau reaches into the left pocket of Canadians and takes out a wad of cash. Then, deposits a few coins into the right pocket and expects taxpayers to praise him for his generosity.
Make no mistake, as Margaret Thatcher put it, “the State has no source of money other than money which people earn themselves.” In the face of Liberal deception, Canadians are not fooled. It is unsurprising that 70 per cent of Canadians and 70 percent of premiers oppose Trudeau’s recent tax hike.
My colleagues and I have listened to the overwhelming call of Canadians to stop the carbon tax. In March, Conservatives proposed a motion to prevent the carbon tax hike. This motion, if passed, would have slammed the brakes on the carbon tax increase and delivered much-needed relief to families. Unfortunately, the Liberals and NDP joined forces to go full steam ahead with their tax hike.
Then, acting on the most signed e-petition in Canadian history, Conservatives called for a motion of non-confidence to trigger an election and allow Canadians to express their concerns at the ballot box. Sadly, the Liberals and NDP voted together again, preventing a carbon tax election.
The corrupt Liberal government must stop punishing Canadians for simply trying to live and provide for their families. The people of this country deserve a government that unleashes their potential and champions a vibrant future for hard-working Canadians—a future where overbearing tax measures are replaced with opportunities for growth and progress.
With more resolve than ever, my Conservative colleagues and I will continue the fight to restore affordability and ensure Canadians are empowered to live a life rich in opportunity.
18-17
Behind the theatrics and the spin of half-truths, what is absent from the Conservative platform is an acknowledgement of climate change, the risks to the stability of ecological systems we rely on, and a credible plan to do our share in reducing ghg emissions.
It would be nice if our representative were to take a step out of the circus tent into the real world where science happens.
Please do tell us Sophie, just how many ppm has CO2 been reduced around the world due to you contribution to a carbon tax. OR do you get a rebate.
Doesn’t it disturb you a little when johnny57 makes a more comprehensible comment?
Let’s say the carbon tax was ineffective. What is being offered by the Conservatives? Or is it simple denialism all the way down?
And yet you have NEVER made one yourself!
Doesnt your woke twisted mind want you to jump all over this oppertunity SophieR?
Serry ifs i hert yer feelings, 57.
LOL you had better come at me with more than that snowflake!
Is it the little snowflake that sent you running, terrified that the sky was falling?
No not at all! That would make me a loonie-toon woke misfit like yourself!
Taunting people makes you the loser here.
Going after a female no less.
What a man! (sic)
Never having said ANYTHING here intelligent makes you the BIG loser! Can you confirm in anyway that the poster is female? Or does your Lumpy little brain just tell you so?
Yep, Sophie is female.
You must be a complete idiot.
I’ll bet you wear ‘wife beater’ undershirts.
Wife beater? Now I know you are a MORON! LOSER!
Look in the mirror, azzhole.
“The sky is falling-the sky is falling!” There another CT hike! whew! that was close! Now the planet is saved and I can sleep at night again!
….coming from an MP who is part and parcel of the disturbing, populist, authoritarian ultra right wing ilk of the Poilievre Conservatives. Credible? No.
It’s a good thing they’re dropping in the polls.
Canadians in general suffer “First World Problems”. We do not even come close to the Hell On Earth tragedies that befall millions of people in some nations. Yes, we do have citizens that have fallen between the cracks… but you do not have to dig too far to recognize that we are a nation of people who routinely vote for governance that quite simply is far more concerned with corporate welfare than a primary concern for everyday citizens. In fact some of our political parties spend an extraordinary effort brainwashing the population into believing that corporate welfare will trickle down to benefit us all — yet recently one corporation after another is declaring massive profits while weekly raising the costs of even the most basic needs. Corporate CEOs earn incredible salaries, while painting pictures that a “living wage” for citizens is a dirty term. Their political puppets join in on the corporate indoctrination, and conspire to rob of us yet more of our rights and public services for the great ideal of “privatization”. One only has to look at the recent financial fiasco of the UCP medical lab privatization to recognize how much these greed driven projects cost citizens. Meanwhile, man driven-or-not, our planet (not just our province) is witnessing almost weekly acute catastrophes associated with a rapid climate change. Our popular media owned by corporate conglomerations pays next to no heed to an equally dire mass extinction of insect, flora, and fauna species that are interwoven with mankind’s existence on Earth; a mass extinction that is happening far more quickly than any past mass extinction event, and apparently will cause the loss of most species on the planet. Meanwhile politicians like Pierre Poilievre and Rachael Thomas grimly determined to gain power above any other primary concerns for Canada and the planet, bury their heads in the sand; so deeply that they are not even capable of offering any sane solutions for the multitudes of pressing issues we face as Canadians and members of humanity period. Some reality checks that I have read in the past 24 hours, and I suggest that any politician not wilfully blind might give a damn about as well: https://www.climatecentral.org/sea-level-rise ; https://www.delta-optimist.com/highlights/at-least-325000-canadians-in-path-of-sea-level-rise-new-data-shows-8553337 ; https://climate.nasa.gov/news/3134/reducing-emissions-to-lessen-climate-change-would-yield-dramatic-health-benefits-by-2030/ ; https://news.un.org/en/story/2023/03/1134777 . So VERY MUCH MORE information out there for anyone willing to become informed and actively concerned, not brainwashed.
while you make a lot of sense, it all requires me to have make some changes. i just prefer pierre and rachael because their denials will prevent me from having to make any stupid sacrifices and stuff. pierre and rachael is simple folk, and so is me.
Small sacrifices add up to marked accumulative effects well beyond Dennis Bremner’s inanimate math.
Rex Murphy said it right…:
“The great talking point for the carbon tax was that eight out of 10 households would get back more than they pay in. That was a farce from the very beginning. Were it true it would be the most insane and stupid tax ever imagined. Name a tax that makes the taxpayer richer. What a strange incentive that would be. Half of Canada would be upping the thermostat, putting the air conditioner on in winter, and driving day and night to burn up oil and gas so that they could get more back than they put in.”
…Sage words, if ever!
Of course your idea fails to recognize that few people would bother to attempt your silly suggestion. A vast number of citizens are seeking ways to fight for our planet on top of any thought of such greed. Other studies and analysis by economists out there to support the Carbon Tax, but this is a concise tidbit: https://climateinstitute.ca/news/industrial-carbon-pricing-the-top-driver-of-emissions-reductions-new-analysis-shows/