BC United leader Kevin Falcon has promised to eliminate the carbon tax on all fuels for British Columbians if his party is elected in next year’s provincial election.
Falcon said Tuesday in Victoria that a BC United government would scrap carbon pricing on gasoline/diesel and home heating oil and would also remove the carbon tax for on-farm fuels to reduce operational costs for farmers..
“Effectively, the things that are in our control when we form government in 2024 would be that fifteen-cent-a-litre provincial fuel tax that everybody pays, so they will see immediate relief at the pumps when they fill up their vehicles,” said BC United Prince George-Mackenzie MLA Mike Morris.
“The other issue is eliminating the carbon tax on home heating fuel and eliminating the tax on fuels for farm tractors and farm use and hopefully provide some relief in the food chain so that we’ll see lower prices at the end of the day in supermarkets.”
The provincial response comes in the wake of the federal Liberal government’s proposed three-year carbon tax pause on home heating oil, used primarily in the Atlantic provinces, and an offer of rebates to cover the cost of replacing oil furnaces with heat pumps.
Falcon’s proposed reforms would cost the province an estimated $5 billion in lost revenue over three years. Morris said his party still supports having a carbon tax which he says has led to lower emissions, but he said it should be frozen at $30 per tonne of CO2 equivalent emissions, the rate set by Falcon in 2012 when he was B.C.’s finance minister.
“It’s going to go to $170 a tonne within five to seven years, which is unsustainable for people’s pocket books.”
Conservative Party of BC leader John Rustad says he’s not surprised the federal government has left Western provinces out in the cold and supports Saskatchewan's threat to withhold the tax.
“I’m very pleased to see the pushback on this, British Columbians, quite frankly, are taxed to death,” said Rustad, MLA for Nechako Lakes. “It’s the usual approach I’ve seen from Ottawa, which is to shaft the people of Western Canada, we’ve seen this time and time again and unfortunately it’s happening now.”
Rustad is critical of Eby’s support for carbon pricing on fuel and natural gas heat and has no intention of scrapping it, as the two opposition parties would.
“Clearly, the premier is not willing to stand up and do what’s right for the people of this province when it comes to the cost of living and the carbon tax on an essential thing we need to live which is our heating and our energy,” Rustad said.
Rustad finds it ironic BC United now opposes the carbon tax, referring to the fact that in 2008, the party formerly known as the BC Liberals, under premier Gordon Campbell, became the first jurisdiction in North America to institute a carbon tax.
"It's a complete flip-flop, it's nice to see other people are finally coming to their senses" said Rustad. "Although what I really have to chuckle about - is this the reason they kicked me out of the Liberal party?"
