OPINION: Canada can’t afford any carbon taxes
All carbon taxes must be scrapped in Canada for three key reasons. First, a carbon tax on businesses is a carbon tax on Canadians that we can’t afford. Second, the United States is ready to steal our businesses and Canada’s carbon taxes are giving our businesses a push out the door for them to leave. Third, the hidden, industrial carbon tax is a permanent way for the government to keep draining money from Canadian job creators and workers. No matter the label, all carbon taxes are ultimately paid by normal working people. Liberal leadership candidate Mark Carney plans to hide the consumer-facing carbon tax while continuing to hammer businesses with ever-increasing carbon taxes. Carney is playing a dangerous game of hide-and-seek with his carbon tax plans. Carney doesn’t want to scrap the carbon tax. To use his words, he just wants to “change” it. “So, in changing the carbon tax … We are making the large companies pay for everybody,” Carney said. Here’s Carney’s problem: Canadians aren’t stupid. Just 12% of people believe Carney when he claims that businesses will pay most of the cost of an industrial carbon tax, according to a Leger poll. Meanwhile, 70% said businesses would pass most or some of those costs to consumers. The poll gets worse for Carney. Among those decided on the issue, 85% of Canadians – including the majority of voters in every party – believe businesses will pass most or some of the cost on to consumers. Canadians understand these clear facts: Carbon taxes on fuel refineries make gasoline and diesel more expensive. Carbon taxes on utilities make home heating and power bills more expensive. Carbon taxes on fertilizer plants increase costs for farmers and that makes groceries more expensive Here’s the second reason why Canada needs to scrap all carbon taxes now: U.S. President Donald Trump. Trump is trying to lure away our businesses and Carney’s hidden carbon tax would help him do it. The U.S., like most countries, doesn’t impose a national carbon tax. Right now, Trump and his administration are on a stampede, trying to make deals for their own country. They don’t bat an eyelash at inflicting financial and trade damage on other countries. Picture Trump on the phone in the Oval Office, and he’s talking to the heads of car manufacturers, steel plants, fuel refineries, fertilizer plants and energy producers. He is trying to convince them all to set up shop in states like Michigan, Ohio and Pennsylvania. Invest! Make money! Employ people! Make the rust belt chrome again! As good as a salesman as Trump may be, it’s Carney’s carbon tax on businesses that will truly make the case for cutting production in Canada and increasing production south of the border. With Trump’s tariffs dangling over our economy like the sword of Damocles, politicians must be doing everything in their power to make Canada more competitive. The easiest way to do that is to stop hammering businesses with carbon taxes. The carbon tax blew a $12-billion hole in our Canadian economy last year. Third, a hidden industrial carbon tax makes it easier for governments to drain wealth from Canadians. Whenever a tax is less transparent, it is easier for governments to jack it up. The Trudeau government’s carbon tax inflicted pain on Canadians. But at least Canadians can see most of the pain showing up on their heating bills, or they can do the carbon tax math at the gas pump and protest in anger every time the government increases it. Carney’s business carbon tax would inflict real pain, but it would be harder to detect. Carney has refused to provide Canadians with a clear answer to this simple question: How much will your carbon tax cost? Canadians need our government to scrap all carbon taxes. Franco Terrazzano is federal director and Kris Sims is the Alberta director of the Canadian Taxpayers Federation
