By Rebel News | Created at 2024-10-29 22:30:31 | Updated at 2024-10-30 05:33:31
11 hours ago
Alberta’s government has filed a legal challenge at the Federal Court, taking aim at Canada’s selective carbon tax exemption for home heating oil. It’s a fight to protect Albertans who continue to pay hefty carbon taxes just to stay warm, while Ottawa gives special treatment to the east.
Last year, after repeatedly preaching that the carbon tax would be "fairly" applied nationwide, the federal government did a sudden about-face, exempting home heating oil—a fuel used predominantly in Atlantic Canada and Quebec—from the carbon tax. Meanwhile, Albertans who rely on natural gas to heat their homes were left out in the cold, quite literally, with no such break on their energy bills.
Now, Premier Danielle Smith is taking the Trudeau government to task, launching a court battle to have the exemption declared unconstitutional and unlawful. According to Smith, the exemption not only violates the Greenhouse Gas Pollution Pricing Act but also fails to uphold Canada’s promise of "equal treatment" under carbon pricing.
“Last year, Ottawa decided that Canadians in the east deserved a three-year break from paying the carbon tax on their home heating costs. While we’re happy for these Canadians, Alberta, Saskatchewan, and other provinces that heat their homes with natural gas have been deliberately excluded from these savings,” Premier Smith declared. “Albertans simply cannot stand by for another winter while the federal government picks and chooses who their carbon tax applies to. Since they won’t play fair, we’re going to take the federal government back to court.”
Despite the Supreme Court of Canada’s ruling that the Greenhouse Gas Pollution Pricing Act was constitutional, the ruling also specified that Canada’s jurisdiction was limited to setting minimum national standards—standards that should be applied evenly across the country. Alberta’s government argues that by exempting heating oil, Ottawa is undermining its own carbon pricing scheme and unlawfully favouring one region over others.
Mickey Amery, Alberta’s Minister of Justice and Attorney General, didn’t hold back: “This exemption is not only unfair to the vast majority of Canadians, but it is also unlawful. The federal government isn’t even following their own laws now. Someone needs to hold them accountable, and Alberta is stepping up to do just that.”
The financial impact of the carbon tax is hitting all Canadians hard, with projections that it will cost a staggering $25 billion annually by 2030, while shrinking Canada’s GDP by $9 billion. The Bank of Canada has even blamed the carbon tax for boosting inflation by 0.15% every year.
Since April 1, 2024, Albertans have been paying around 35 cents per litre in federal taxes on fuel, including the carbon tax, excise tax, and GST. Meanwhile, the percentage of households using home heating oil in the Atlantic provinces is significantly higher than in Alberta, where less than 1% of homes use it.
