Many Canadians are worried about paying their bills, buying groceries and still having money left over to save for a rainy day. The last thing they need is their government making it more expensive to put gas in their car or food in their fridge.
Many Canadians are feeling deep anxiety about losing their job. The last thing they need is their government pushing the company they work for to leave Canada for the United States.
My name is Franco Terrazzano. I'm the federal director of the Canadian Taxpayers Federation. I'm here on behalf of hundreds of thousands of taxpayers with a simple message: It doesn't matter what label you slap on a carbon tax. Carbon taxes make life in Canada more expensive. Carbon taxes chase away Canadian jobs, and carbon taxes don't work.
The government should end all carbon taxes for all of the reasons it ended the consumer carbon tax. For years, politicians told Canadians that the consumer carbon tax made them richer, but nobody believed that because it wasn't true. Stats Canada showed that inflation dropped after the government cancelled its consumer carbon tax. Government MPs even shot videos in front of gas stations, praising themselves after cutting a carbon tax that they had charged for years.
Leger polling shows that Canadians aren't buying that same government spin about the industrial carbon tax. About 70% of Canadians say businesses will pass on most or some of the costs of the industrial carbon tax to consumers through higher prices. Canadians understand the simple reality: Carbon taxes on refineries make it more expensive to drive. Carbon taxes on fertilizer plants make it more expensive to eat. Carbon taxes on electricity make it more expensive to live.
The consumer carbon tax didn't work, and a carbon tax on Canadian business won't either. Canadian governments impose carbon taxes on fertilizer, oil and gas, and steel. The U.S. government does not. If you chase a fertilizer plant out of Manitoba, that doesn't reduce emissions. It just means Canadian jobs go to North Dakota. If you chase an oil and gas project out of Alberta, that doesn't reduce emissions. It just means Canadian jobs go to Texas. If you chase a steel plant out of Ontario, that doesn't reduce emissions, either. It just means Canadian jobs go to Ohio.
Canadians are already 10 out of 10 worried about tariffs and losing their own jobs. The last thing they need to worry about is attacks from their own government that push the company they work for to move to the U.S.
A trade union has already warned that the industrial carbon tax will decimate Hamilton and move steel production, and all of the jobs that come with it, into the States.
There is no escaping the fatal flaw of carbon taxes, regardless of what you call that carbon tax. A carbon tax that makes life more expensive in Canada will not reduce emissions in places like China, India, Russia or the United States, so a Canadian carbon tax won't fix the issue of global emissions.
About 70% of countries do not impose national carbon taxes, according to the World Bank, but all Canadians really need to do to understand this fatal flaw of carbon taxes is look south to our biggest economic competitor. Regardless of who is in the White House, whether it's a Republican like Trump or Bush, or a Democrat like Biden or Obama, the White House is not imposing carbon taxes.
Getting rid of the consumer carbon tax was only half the job. The government needs to end its hidden carbon taxes, including the industrial carbon tax, for the same reasons it needed to end the consumer carbon tax.
Carbon taxes make life more expensive. Canadians didn't believe it when politicians told them carbon taxes make their lives more affordable, and they don't believe it now. Carbon taxes don't work. Pushing Canadian entrepreneurs to cut production here and set up shop south of the border doesn't cut emissions. It just cuts Canadian jobs.
The industrial carbon tax is the worst of all worlds. It's hidden. It makes life more expensive. It will cost Canadians their jobs. It needs to go.
Thank you.