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Conservative Party Leader Pierre Poilievre has called on British Columbia Premier David Eby to cancel the province’s planned April 1 carbon tax hike.
In a letter sent today and posted on social media platform X, the leader of the opposition said people in BC are “in desperate need of relief” and “cannot afford another tax hike.”
“BC already has the highest gas prices in Canada,” Pollievre wrote. “Nearly 200,000 people in BC used food banks in a single month last year. As people across our country are struggling, the last thing they need is another tax increase.”
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 Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has emphasized that rebates will also be increased.
BC, like Quebec and the Northwest Territories, has its own carbon tax system.
Today I wrote to David Eby, Premier of British Columbia to ask him:
— Pierre Poilievre (@PierrePoilievre) March 15, 2024
1. Not to administer the April 1 carbon tax hike
2. To join with seven other Canadian Premiers in demanding Trudeau spike the hike
Sign here to spike the hike & axe the tax: https://t.co/TUD0Gq7kCF pic.twitter.com/KYY7SKqPO8
As with the federal tax, however, BC’s carbon tax rate will be increasing from $65 per tonne to $80 on April 1.
Poilievre’s call for BC to “axe the tax” – he wishes to remove it entirely – has attracted support from the province’s two main centre-right parties.
The Conservative Party of BC posted an image of its leader, John Rustad, alongside Poilievre and the words: “We stand with Pierre Poilievre in his call to axe the tax and spike the hike.”
BC Leader of the Opposition Kevin Falcon, meanwhile, has also endorsed Poilievre’s call, posting an image on X showing him shaking hands with the Tory leader and writing: “British Columbians simply cannot afford another David Eby NDP carbon tax hike.”
I join Conservative and Liberal Premiers from across Canada in standing with Pierre Poilievre's call to spike the hike.
— Kevin Falcon (@KevinFalcon) March 14, 2024
British Columbians simply cannot afford another David Eby NDP carbon tax hike. pic.twitter.com/VJTljkjZdM
Speaking to NowMedia last November, Falcon said the BC carbon tax is a “failed policy” and reiterated BC United’s plan to abolish it entirely if the federal Tories win the next election.
BC NDP Environment Minister George Heyman has strongly defended the carbon tax, accusing Rustad of “continuous denial that human activity causes climate change.”
He has also accused Falcon of “ripping up” the NDP’s Clean BC plan in a “desperate attempt to win back voters from the Conservatives.”
In the Legislative Assembly on Thursday, Falcon urged the provincial government to cancel the tax hike and help those “struggling to eat, heat and house themselves.”
We stand with @PierrePoilievre in calling on Trudeau and Eby’s BC NDP to #AxeTheTax.
— Conservative Party of BC (@Conservative_BC) March 12, 2024
It’s time BC joins several other provinces in their call for change.
Trudeau and Eby are taxing people into poverty. British Columbians can no longer afford this carbon tax grab. #bcpoli pic.twitter.com/ttRcGDCDUv
Minister Heyman responded that the government is aware people in BC “are struggling with inflation” and a “high cost of living.”
But he added: ”British Columbia families are also deeply concerned about the impacts of climate change on their kids, on their grandkids, on the economy, on communities that face wildfires and floods, and they want to be assured that we're taking strong climate action.
“They want to do their part. That's why we've structured the carbon tax in a way that returns money to low- and middle-income British Columbians, which of course would not happen if we ceased the carbon tax.”
Poilievre has previously attacked Eby for having "probably the worst housing record of any politician on Earth."
He has put housing, along with the carbon tax and cost-of-living crisis, at the centre of his campaign to become Canada's next prime minister.
Earlier today, Prime Minister Trudeau said "it's basic math" that most Canadians get "more money than they pay" with the carbon tax.
He was defending the policy once again, after the Liberal premier of Newfoundland and Labrador joined six other provincial leaders in calling for a pause on the April 1 hike.
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