SIMS: Trudeau carbon tax will punish Albertans this Autumn

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Albertans will be punished with the carbon tax for the sin of eating food and heating our homes this autumn and winter.

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That means when we gather to share some roast turkey this Thanksgiving, we will be hit with the carbon tax. Same goes for keeping our homes warm during the autumn chill.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s carbon tax makes it more expensive for farmers to produce food, for truckers to haul food and for Canadians to buy food.

The carbon tax also jacks up the cost at the gas station and makes heating our homes more expensive.

As one of the Trudeau government consultants that drafted the carbon tax legislation stated, the entire point of the carbon tax is to “punish the poor behaviour of using fossil fuels.”

The carbon tax adds 17 cents per litre of gasoline and 21 cents per litre of diesel. This costs about $13 extra to fill up a minivan and about $20 extra to fill up a pickup truck.

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The carbon tax on diesel costs truckers about $200 extra to fill up the tanks on big-rig trucks. In total, the carbon tax will cost the long haul trucking industry about $2 billion this year.

That tax bill is only getting bigger because Trudeau is cranking up his carbon tax every year for the next six years.

The carbon tax also makes food cost more, including the turkeys Canadians will eat this Thanksgiving. They’re kept in heated barns, which are also carbon taxed. And the trucks hauling them to the grocery store are carbon taxed, too.

The Parliamentary Budget Officer reports the carbon tax will cost Canadian farmers about $1 billion by 2030.

But it’s not just transportation and food that gets hit with Trudeau’s carbon tax. Home heating is punished too.

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The current carbon tax costs 15 cents extra per cubic metre of natural gas and 12 cents extra per litre of propane. The Trudeau government suspended the carbon tax on furnace oil for three years.

An average Alberta home uses about 2,930 cubic metres of natural gas per year, so the carbon tax will cost families about $429 extra this coming winter. Costs are similar for heating with propane.

And nobody buys the federal spin about rebates.

The Parliamentary Budget Officer reports the carbon tax will cost the Canadian economy about $1 billion a year by 2030. Also, the government charges its sales tax on top of the carbon tax. This tax-on-tax costs Canadians hundreds of millions per year and there are zero rebates for it.

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Home heating is essential for a place like Alberta that is bone-chilling cold in winter.

Punishing Canadians with a carbon tax is unfair because driving to work, buying food and heating our homes are not luxuries. These are essential activities done by ordinary people in a big, cold, working country.

That’s a point that leaders from across the political spectrum have recognized.

“Canada is a cold place and heating your home really isn’t a choice,” said Jack Layton, the late former NDP leader, in 2008. “We shouldn’t punish people and that’s what a carbon tax does.”

Here’s the worst part.

The carbon tax in Canada won’t fix global climate change. As the PBO has noted, “Canada’s own emissions are not large enough to materially impact climate change.”

Albertans should not be punished for staying warm and feeding our families.

Kris Sims is the Alberta Director of the Canadian Taxpayers Federation

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