Government House Leader Steven MacKinnon announced Monday that the consumer carbon tax is "absolutely gone," despite no legislative plan for its removal.

"There are a lot of laws on the books that either aren't applied anymore or are simply ignored, maybe even forgotten, but the carbon tax is absolutely gone, and we'll make sure that that's made very clear to Canadians in due course," MacKinnon told CTV News on Sunday.

On his first day as leader, Prime Minister Mark Carney fulfilled his promise to eliminate the "divisive" fuel charge by setting the fuel charge rate to zero.

He went on to defend the carbon tax before international allies on March 17, just three days after its cancellation.

Outlining the Liberal government's parliamentary priorities, including a minor income tax reduction, MacKinnon did not specify when the carbon tax would be repealed through legislation. "That will have to be done eventually," he claimed. 

The unpopular levy has been a target of Conservative attacks on the Liberals, as well as internal criticism from their caucus. Pierre Poilievre clarified that despite a temporary measure, the tax remains in effect nationwide.

"It's ultimately a trick," warned Poilievre in March. "Hide the tax before the election, and then bring it back bigger than ever after the election."

He has long advocated for eliminating the carbon tax, arguing it financially burdens Canadians by increasing the price of necessities like food and fuel. Inflation in Canada fell 0.6 percentage points in April after its removal.

Carney intends to offset reduced emissions from the consumer carbon tax by tightening the industrial carbon tax and implementing carbon border tariffs on foreign imports.

Meanwhile, a 2023 order paper submitted by Conservative MP Leslyn Lewis revealed the Liberal government paid the World Economic Forum (WEF) to write a favourable report on the carbon tax. 

"Global interest groups should not be trusted to care about the prosperity of Canadians," wrote MP Lewis last March. Governments globally collected $104 billion in carbon taxes in 2023.

Carney served as a board member and agenda contributor to the Forum for years. He previously backed the levy but promised to eliminate it during his leadership bid.

The Opposition condemned Carney last September for advising Liberals to push the carbon tax. 

A 2024 Postmedia-Leger poll commissioned by the Taxpayers Federation found that 51% of Canadians had reservations that the Liberal Party would eliminate the consumer carbon tax.

The Greenhouse Gas Pollution Pricing Act outlined a planned carbon tax increase every April 1st, at the start of each budget year, until 2030. The fuel charge increases on natural gas (18 cents), gasoline (21 cents), diesel and home heating oil (25 cents) are now moot.

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