Climate may be a sensitive issue given Canada’s failure to meet basic emission targets promised at Paris. In efforts to regain semblance of the country’s reduction goals, the Liberal party focused on carbon tax for their election ads.
The ads:
The radio ads aired in the four provinces (Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Ontario and New Brunswick) where the federal government is imposing a carbon tax after their provincial conservative governments refused to levy their own price on carbon.
The ads stress that the money raised from these taxes will be given back to residents in those provinces.
The Rebates:
- Saskatchewan: According to the ads, the average family of four will receive more than $600 this year.
- Ontario & Manitoba: More than $300 this year.
- New Brunswick: More than $250 this year.
This is in rebuttal to the Conservative’s liaise-affair taxation when it comes to pollution emitters.
“Now, some politicians want to go back to the Harper years when pollution was free. We have to do better than that. Our kids are counting on us,” Trudeau says in the ads.
The Carbon Tax in a Nutshell:
The Trudeau government is requiring provinces to impose a price on carbon emissions, which begin at $20 per tonne this year, and rise by $10 per tonne annually until it hits %50 in 2022. For provinces that refuse to meet the federal threshold, it is imposing its own tax on them. When residents file their taxes this spring the payments will be made to them.
Until the SNC-Lavalin scandal exploded in February, climate change remained one of the most pivotal issues in the upcoming election. Conservative Leader Andrew Scheer warned that the carbon tax will increase the cost of everything for consumers, but he has not yet revealed his plans for climate change.
