Canadians are fed up with Guilbeault’s ‘misleading’ carbon tax claims
Environment Minister Steven Guilbeault continues to peddle that emissions have declined, courtesy of the carbon tax, and that taxpayers benefit from rebates. Both claims have been refuted by several independent reports.
Canadians do not take the Trudeau government for its word on the supposed benefits of the carbon tax, according to Privy Council focus groups. They repute the claim that most households are net recipients of the levy.
“Carbon pricing works,” claimed Environment Minister Steven Guilbeault. “This has never been clearer.”
“People get more money back,” he previously said.
During an April 3, 2023 interview with CTV News, the environment minister acknowledged households pay more in carbon tax than they receive in rebates.
“If you do the average, yeah, it's true, it's going to cost more money to people, but the people who are paying are the richest among us, which is exactly how the system was designed,” he said at the time.
An earlier Parliamentary Budget Officer (PBO) report said only the poorest 20% of Canadian households will be a net recipient of the carbon tax in fiscal year 2024/25.
“Based on our analysis, most households will pay more in fuel charges and GST — as well as receiving slightly lower incomes — than in Climate Action Incentive payments,” said PBO Yves Giroux in a statement to the Toronto Sun.
Focus group participants were livid by the misleading statistics, reported Blacklock’s Reporter.
“Asked whether they thought the rebate they had received had been more than the additional costs they paid as a result of the implementation of a federal price on carbon, very few believed this to be the case,” said the report Continuous Qualitative Data Collection Of Canadians’ Views.
Most Canadians attributed Budget Office reports for why they did not believe the federal claim. Those who received “hundreds of dollars more than they paid” said they remained skeptics of the carbon pricing initiative.
Many also questioned the purpose of the federal carbon tax, given most funds were redistributed back to Canadians. “…a number expressed the view that carbon pollution pricing would likely have little effect on changing the emitting behaviour of Canadians,” reads the report.
“Several believed the federal government needed to provide far greater clarity to Canadians regarding ways in which this initiative was contributing to reducing emissions and whether it had been successful thus far in achieving its goals.”
A Department of Environment manager previously said the carbon tax had minimal impact in reducing emissions, which have risen every year since the 2020 pandemic lockdowns and travel bans.
A 2023 report from Jerry DeMarco, the Environment Commissioner, depicted federal climate programs as guesswork, and said the Trudeau government has never met an emissions target.
“We continue to work to refine our reporting,” walked back Guilbeault during testimony at the Commons environment committee.
“In the meantime, as they say, the proof is in the pudding,” he added.
Meanwhile, Minister Guilbeault, as late as October 10, claimed emissions have declined and that taxpayers benefited from rebates.
Parliament in 2019 passed the Greenhouse Gas Pollution Pricing Act to reduce emissions by taxing fuels.
The tax is currently worth 12¢ per litre of propane, 15¢ per cubic metre of natural gas, 18¢ per litre of gasoline, 20¢ per litre of aviation fuel and 25¢ per litre of heating oil. A 23% increase is due next April 1.
Alex Dhaliwal
Calgary Based Journalist
Alex Dhaliwal is a Political Science graduate from the University of Calgary. He has actively written on relevant Canadian issues with several prominent interviews under his belt.
