Poilievre urges emergency debate on April 1 carbon price hike

Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre‘s call for an emergency debate in the House of Commons on the April 1 carbon price increase will not move forward.

Speaker Greg Fergus said that the request did not meet the requirements under the standing orders of the House of Commons to trigger an emergency debate.

Poilievre had said in a statement on X that the debate was needed.

“Canadians can’t afford this. That’s why 70 per cent of people oppose Justin Trudeau’s plan to hike the tax and 70 per cent of provincial premiers, including the Liberal Premier of Newfoundland and Labrador, have joined the common sense Conservative movement in demanding Trudeau spike the hike,” Poilievre wrote in a letter posted on X.

Last week, Poilievre said the Conservatives plan to employ a variety of measures in the House of Commons to try to stop the annual carbon price increase.

This is the last sitting week for the House of Commons before April 1.

Additionally, Poilievre has put two motions on notice as MPs return from break week, focused on two scheduled tax and fee increases kicking in on April 1 — one for the carbon price and another for the alcohol escalator tax.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has been adamant there will be no further carveouts to the carbon price and the Bloc Quebecois historically have been in favour of the policy.

The NDP have not always voted with the Liberals on the carbon price, but when asked about the current opposition to the policy last week, Singh said his party wants to see the GST removed from home heating, calling it an essential service.

Advertisement. Scroll to continue reading.

On April 1, the federal carbon price is set to rise from $65 per tonne of CO2 emitted to $80 per tonne.

ADVERTISEMENT

At the gas pump, this equals a roughly three-cent-per-litre increase to almost $0.18 per litre. For natural gas used in home heating, it’s an increase from $0.12 per cubic metre to $0.15.

Opposition to the increase has intensified since Trudeau announced a three-year pause to the policy on home heating oil in October, a policy critics say disproportionately affects Atlantic Canada.

Trudeau stressed this pause applies nationally, but made the announcement flanked by members of the Atlantic Liberal caucus.

The goal of the three-year pause is to strike agreements with provinces to help subsidize the purchase of heat pumps for home on heating oil, which has a higher pollution charge.

For example, the charge for kerosene increases from $0.16 per litre to $0.20 per litre under the fee schedule.

Last week, the premiers of Nova Scotia and Newfoundland and Labrador  — the latter of whom is a Liberal — wrote Trudeau requesting a pause on the scheduled carbon price increase.

ADVERTISEMENT

Both cited cost of living concerns as the primary reason for calling on a pause.

Advertisement. Scroll to continue reading.

In Calgary last week, Trudeau said that “short-term thinking” politicians are driving the opposition to the carbon price, arguing that eight out of 10 Canadians get more back than they pay through quarterly rebates.

When asked about fellow Liberal, Newfoundland and Labrador Premier Andrew Furey calling for a pause, Trudeau said he felt Furey was caving to “political pressure.”

Advertisement. Scroll to continue reading.

Trudeau added that it’s not his job to be popular, but to make the best decisions for Canada.

Poilievre will also introduce a motion calling for the “entire” tax increase on alcohol to also be scrapped. This escalator tax is tied to the consumer price index and automatically increases annually. The increase had been expected to go up by 4.7 per cent this year, but on March 9, Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland announced the increase will remain capped at two per cent.

“Today’s announcement is good news for Canadians and for the craft breweries they visit, which will now benefit from thousands of dollars in new tax relief every year,” Freeland said when announcing the continued cap.

The announcement came after local craft breweries across the country started raising the alarm over surging production costs.

— with files from Global News’ Eric Stober. 

Read More