Mr. Speaker, climate change is an existential challenge, and climate action is critical to Canada’s long term health and economic prosperity. Carbon pricing is widely recognized as the most efficient means of reducing our greenhouse gas, or GHG, emissions, which is why the Government of Canada continues to make sure that it is not free to pollute in Canada.
The federal price on pollution is revenue-neutral for the federal government; all of the direct proceeds from the federal carbon pricing system remain in the province or territory where they are collected. Put simply, every dollar collected from the carbon price is returned.
The fuel charge is generally paid at the producer or distributor level and passed on to purchasers as part of the price paid for fuel. Monthly fuel charge returns only account for aggregate amounts by fuel type and by province or territory. Typically, once the fuel charge has been paid by a fuel producer or distributor, there is no further reporting of who ultimately bears the cost of the federal fuel charge.
In the provinces where the fuel charge applies, the majority of households receive more with the Canada carbon rebate than they incur in carbon pricing-related costs. The government reports the direct fuel charge proceeds collected and returned annually through the Greenhouse Gas Pollution Pricing Act annual report. For more information on the proceeds collected and returned, please see the annual report for 2022 at the following website: https://publications.gc.ca/site/eng/9.893583/publication.html.