OPINION: Poilievre vows to scrap the carbon tax – for real

Published Mar 19, 2025 • Last updated Mar 19, 2025 • 3 minute read

Pierre Poilievre, leader of the Conservative Party of Canada, addresses the media during a stop at Pioneer Construction in Sudbury, Ont. on Wednesday March 19, 2025. Photo by John Lappa /John Lappa/Sudbury Star

This is a game-changer.

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Conservative Party Leader Pierre Poilievre vows to scrap all carbon taxes.

Poilievre said his government would scrap the hidden industrial carbon tax on Canadian businesses and manufacturers.

This makes Poilievre the first federal political leader to commit to ending all carbon taxes.

This is great news for hard-working Canadians.

The hidden industrial carbon tax is bad news for two big reasons:

First, industrial carbon tax costs are passed on to consumers. When governments nail fuel refineries, utility companies and fertilizer plants with carbon taxes, it makes gas, diesel, home heating and food more expensive.

Second, U.S. President Donald Trump wants to steal Canadian businesses and manufacturers. The Canadian industrial carbon tax punishes those businesses. A hidden carbon tax on Canadian businesses is a cruel way of pushing them across the border.

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Meanwhile, Prime Minister Mark Carney announced his Liberal government would remove the consumer carbon tax “immediately.” But the devil is always in the details. And Carney’s carbon tax plan has split hooves and horns.

Carney said he was “immediately” lowering the consumer carbon tax to zero, but the paper he signed says the relief won’t happen until April 1.

That move, if it happens, would save Canadians about 17¢ litre of gasoline and about 21¢per litre of diesel. Fuelling up a pickup truck would be about $20 less and gassing up a minivan would be about $13 cheaper.

Canadian households would save about $400 on their home heating bills every year.

Canadians struggling to fill up their gas tanks and pay their heating bills need that carbon tax cut now.

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So, it’s baffling and callous for Carney to needlessly make people wait a few more weeks for help. He should be doing what he promised and scrapping the carbon tax immediately. He knows it’s the right thing to do.

Canadians fought back against the carbon tax so hard that even Carney, the Godfather of the Carbon tax, had to admit it was radioactive.

That is a huge victory for Canadians. Carney wrote a 507-page book praising carbon taxes and he was the United Nations Special Envoy on this topic, so it’s a big deal to make him admit the carbon tax is a big problem.

Here’s the catch: Carney says he’ll move the cost of the carbon tax onto Canadian businesses and factories by cranking up the industrial carbon tax.

This is bad for Canadians because they will still be paying the cost of the carbon tax, but it will just be tougher to know where the pain is coming from.

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For example, a fuel refinery supplying gasoline and diesel can’t just eat the cost of the industrial carbon tax. Those businesses must pass the increased cost on to the gas station.

It’s the same for a fertilizer plant. The carbon tax will drive up costs for farmers and that will make food cost more.

Carney wants to hammer businesses with carbon taxes and hopes Canadians won’t notice when businesses pass those costs on to consumers through higher prices.

“So in changing the carbon tax … we are making the large companies pay,” Carney said.

Carney’s problem is that Canadians don’t believe him.

Just 12% of Canadians believe businesses pay most of the cost of the industrial carbon tax, according to a recent Leger poll commissioned by the CTF. Meanwhile, 70% said businesses would pass most or some carbon tax costs on to consumers.

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Carney’s other problem is Trump isn’t imposing carbon taxes on American businesses. Neither have recent Democratic administrations. Trump wants to bully Canadian businesses and Carney’s industrial carbon tax will help Trump make that a reality.

Canadians’ problem is that Carney’s carbon tax is a recipe for disaster — higher prices, fewer jobs and less production in Canada.

Fortunately, Poilievre’s commitment to scrap the industrial carbon tax is a game-changer. Carney must explain why one carbon tax makes life more expensive, but the other is just fine.

Franco Terrazzano is the federal director and Kris Sims the Alberta director of the Canadian Taxpayers Federation

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