JAY GOLDBERG: Thank Trudeau’s carbon tax for surging heating bills

Published Sep 19, 2024  •  Last updated 0 minutes ago  •  3 minute read

Piping is seen on the top of a receiving platform which will be connected to the Coastal GasLink natural gas pipeline terminus at the LNG Canada export terminal under construction, in Kitimat, B.C., on Wednesday, Sept. 28, 2022. Photo by Darryl Dyck /THE CANADIAN PRESS

Taxpayers better brace themselves for the bruising impact of the Trudeau government’s carbon tax on home heating bills this winter.

Article content

If you heat your home with natural gas, like more than 75% of Ontario households, you will be paying a lot more to stay warm.

The carbon tax increases the cost of natural gas by 15 cents per cubic metre.

The average household in Ontario uses about 2,497 cubic metres of natural gas per year. That means the carbon tax will cost an extra $381 this winter.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau continues to impose the carbon tax even as other long-time proponents, like NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh, are thinking about jumping ship.

The Trudeau government is still trying to argue that by charging a carbon tax — paying bureaucrats to administer the carbon tax, charging the sales tax on top of the carbon tax and then using a magic formula to send some money back to taxpayers — Canadians are somehow “better off.”

Article content

Article content

But average families are worse off when all of the carbon tax costs are considered, according to the parliamentary budget officer. And the prime minister doesn’t even pretend to rebate the nearly $600 million the federal government collects by charging sales taxes on top of the carbon tax.

The tired talking point about making people better off doesn’t muster up. The goal of the federal carbon tax is to “punish” people who use petroleum-based fuels.

The carbon tax is supposed to make home heating more expensive. For the federal government, that’s a feature, not a bug.

But let’s be clear: Home heating isn’t an optional luxury. It’s not something Ontarians can do without when temperatures plunge. And this isn’t a new discovery.

Article content

“Canada is a cold place and heating your home really isn’t a choice,” said former NDP Leader Jack Layton. “We shouldn’t punish people, and that’s what a carbon tax does.”

When the weather gets colder in the fall and stays below freezing through most of the winter, Ontarians can’t just put on a dozen sweaters and spend months wearing multiple layers of long underwear.

Families need to heat their homes, period. And the government shouldn’t be punishing Ontario families just for staying warm.

Trudeau’s insistence on taxing Ontarians who use natural gas to heat their homes is also hypocritical. Last fall, he gave the Canadians who use home heating oil to heat their homes, who are located predominately in Atlantic Canada, a three-year carbon tax exemption.

Article content

Home heating oil is dirtier than natural gas, and yet only those who use home heating oil get a hall pass from Trudeau’s carbon tax. The motivations were clearly political.

Rural Economic Development Minister Gudie Hutchings, who represents a riding in Newfoundland and Labrador, claimed last year that Canadians who use natural gas to heat their homes need to “elect more Liberals” to get similar relief.

Given that Ontario elected the most Liberals in the country in the last election, it’s fair to ask why Ontario’s Liberal MPs haven’t used their clout to defend Ontarians and scrap the carbon tax on the province’s preferred form of home heating.

The stark truth is that most Ontario families can’t afford a $381 carbon tax bill this year.

Article content

A record number of families are now turning to food banks to feed their children. Food banks in Ontario had more than seven million visits in 2023. Trudeau’s carbon tax hike will likely drive that number even higher in 2024.

Ontarians can’t afford Ottawa’s carbon tax punishment, particularly it when doesn’t have a significant impact on global emissions.

For years, British Columbia had the highest carbon tax in Canada. But the most recent data shows B.C.’s emissions in 2022 were higher than the province’s emissions were in 2008 when B.C. first implemented its carbon tax.

On the flip side, Nova Scotia had the lowest carbon tax in Canada until last year when Ottawa imposed the federal carbon tax. And here’s a striking irony: Nova Scotia had already reduced its emissions by 36% below 2005 levels.

Evidence shows carbon taxes punish hard-working families but don’t reduce global emissions. And there’s also clear evidence emissions can be reduced without a punitive carbon tax.

It’s time for Ottawa to end the carbon tax.

It’s not optional for families to heat their homes in the winter, so the Trudeau government must stop punishing taxpayers and scrap the carbon tax.

Jay Goldberg is Ontario director of the Canadian Taxpayers Federation

Article content