Liberal hero and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, undeterred by the massive unrest in France à la the “Yellow Vest” movement, is set to implement a massive federal tax on carbon emissions by April.
As France literally burns from weeks-long protesting over French President Emmanuel Macron’s now-abandoned fuel tax, Trudeau is sticking to his Climate Change initiative, which conservative critics say is already crippling Canadian businesses and squeezing the middle class.
Under Trudeau’s plan, according to The Washington Times, a national price on carbon emissions of $7.5 a ton will be increased to $37.50 by 2022. By April, a carbon tax will be implemented across the nation, despite fiery opposition from at least four provinces.
According to Canada’s environment minister Katherine McKenna, excessively taxing Canadians for carbon emissions “is just a basic principle.”
“If you make it free to pollute, there will be more pollution. If you put a price on pollution, it will create the incentive for folks to save money by reducing pollution, choosing cleaner solutions and the innovations we need,” said McKenna.
“I think it’s unfortunately a trend that we see with some conservative governments that they want to fight progress. They want to fight climate action,” she complained.
As reported by The New York Times, Trudeau’s government, looking to quell preemptive outrage, says they’ll “rebate the money it collects, much of it from industry rather than individuals, to taxpayers.”
Opponents, however, say the “jobs-killing carbon tax” must be scrapped entirely.
“When the federal government feels they know best and they impose what I feel are flawed policies on all of the people of the nation is where we run into challenges,” said Scott Moe, the premier of Saskatchewan. “This is not in any way, shape or form an effective environmental policy — it is only a policy that costs families money unnecessarily.”
Moe implemented Climate Change initiatives in his province to effectively lower carbon emissions but skirted any carbon tax. This was not good enough for Trudeau’s government, hence the looming federal tax.
Candice Bergen, head of the Conservative opposition in the House of Commons, similarly slammed the carbon tax. “It penalizes farmers, it penalizes industry, it penalizes Canadians,” she said, noting that it will not be as environmentally impactful as promised by Canadian liberals.
Support for the measure hit a low 45% in July but rebounded back to 54% approval in October, notes The Washington Times.
“Canadians are divided on the carbon tax by age and demographics, by politics and ideology. It’s an issue opponents are using to attack voters’ trust in the Trudeau government and whether carbon pricing is the right way to go,” pollster Shachi Kurl said.
As argued last week by Daily Wire Editor-in-Chief Ben Shapiro, France’s recent unrest is more evidence that economic growth and environmental overreach are routinely incompatible. “Clearly, France’s riots show there are costs to such overreach. Economic policies have consequences,” he said.