Climate czars poll Canadians on ‘green surtax’ for air travel
Federal in-house polling asked whether Canadians would fly less or pay a green surtax on air tickets. Most declined. The questionnaire did not reference frequent travel by elected officials, bureaucrats, and other dignitaries.
Environment and Climate Change Canada (ECCC) commissioned in-house polling on whether Canadians would fly less or pay a green surtax on air tickets. The research did not reference frequent travel by elected officials, bureaucrats, and other dignitaries.
“The department wanted to measure the public opinion of Canadians on a wide variety of issues,” said an Omnibus Public Opinion Research Survey by Angus Reid Group. Staff use this information to predict future behaviour to shape communications, policies and strategies.
Most Canadians surveyed did not book any air travel in the past year. Of those who did, 55% said they were vacationing or “visiting family or friends,” reported Blacklock’s Reporter.
Asked, “How likely are you to consider actions to reduce your flight’s impact on the environment?” Two in five (41%) were willing to “replace business travel with virtual meeting options.” Other actions were less popular.
Most respondents opposed the idea of paying a green surtax. Asked if they were willing to “pay an additional fee so airlines can purchase sustainable aviation fuel,” nearly two-thirds (63%) were opposed. Asked if they would “pay an additional fee so airlines can purchase carbon emissions offsets,” 65% were opposed.
On flights costing $500, respondents were asked whether they would pay an additional fee to reduce carbon emissions from air travel. Only 30% supported a green surtax of $50 or less.
Trudeau has taken 680 'personal' days as prime minister: report
— Rebel News (@RebelNewsOnline) November 22, 2023
The Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) claims he still works on 'personal' days, calling any suggestion to the contrary 'false and absurd.'
MORE: https://t.co/ROOM4uXT2D pic.twitter.com/FIBDhAhkBQ
Noticeably absent from the questionnaire, however, was a 2023 cabinet promise to reduce air travel by “roughly 15 percent.” It is unknown whether that target was met.
Amid cabinet scrutiny of Canadians for taking summer vacations earlier this year, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's jet flew 92,100 kilometres on government aircraft from June 1 through September 12. Among them included a July 21 flight to Tofino, B.C. for a summer vacation.
He has logged 181,950 kilometres across 68 flights so far this year, mainly aboard a Bombardier Challenger 650 business jet. Requests for flight cost tables were not available.
“While the Liberals were busy saying Canadians who take their families on road trips and summer vacations are guilty of burning down the world, the Liberals were racking up thousands of kilometres of jet-setting carbon hypocrisy,” Deputy Conservative Leader Melissa Lantsman told The Toronto Sun.
Remember when moronic Mark Holland said Canadians who take little road trips with their kids on summer vacation are planet killers?
— Sheila Gunn Reid (@SheilaGunnReid) July 24, 2024
His boss is on the beach on the other side of the country on vacation.
pic.twitter.com/s74CI1ooFN
Then-Commons Speaker Anthony Rota in 2023 led a delegation on a $150,496 South Pacific junket to a conference of the Presiding Officers of the Commonwealth. Expenses included $116,696 for airfare and ground transportation.
Bureaucrats, including Catherine Stewart, Canada’s Ambassador for Climate Change, billed taxpayers more than $254,000 in travel expenses since her appointment. “No nation in the world is immune from the consequences of climate change,” she told a 2023 conference.
Since 2023, Senator Rosa Galvez, former chair of the Senate environment committee and the Senate’s leading opponent of fossil fuels, has logged more than 100,000 kilometres in air travel to attend climate conferences from Casablanca to Mumbai.
Among Trudeau’s 680 "personal" days since 2015 are family vacations abroad, including 31 days in Costa Rica, another nine days in Jamaica, and eight days in the Bahamas, where he breached conflict-of-interest rules by visiting Aga Khan’s private island.
MP Lantsman said a Conservative government would “demonstrate respect” for government travel.
The Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) earlier said it publishes the itineraries "in the spirit of openness and transparency," which Trudeau’s predecessor did not do, they noted. Staff iterated he works on “personal” days.
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