OTTAWA, ON: Taxpayers are demanding to know how much Liberal Party leadership candidate Mark Carney’s carbon tax will cost after he admitted he would “change” the policy rather than scrapping the tax. 

“After Carney led Canadians to believe he was getting rid of the carbon tax, now he says he’s going to ‘change’ it, so how much will his relabeled carbon tax cost?” said Franco Terrazzano, CTF Federal Director. “We know the cost of Carney’s carbon tax won’t be zero, so how much extra will people have to pay when they fill up at the gas station or pay their heating bills?”

Carney clarified his plans for the carbon tax in Kelowna, British Columbia, on Wednesday. 

“The issue wasn’t, to coin a phrase, whether to ‘axe the tax,’ the issue was how to change it,” Carney said. “So in changing the carbon tax … We are making the large companies pay for everybody.”

Currently, the federal carbon tax costs about 17 cents per litre of gasoline, 21 cents per litre of diesel and 15 cents per cubic metre of natural gas. The carbon tax is set to increase on April 1. 

The Parliamentary Budget Officer has repeatedly reported the carbon tax costs the average family hundreds of dollars more than the rebates they get back.

“Taxpayers have a simple question for Carney: What will happen to gas prices and home heating bills under his plan?” Terrazzano said. “Whether the carbon tax is up front or hidden, Canadians can’t afford to pay more to fuel up their cars, heat their homes and buy groceries.”

Carney is proposing to eliminate the visibility of the carbon tax on things like home heating bills, but to still hit businesses with the carbon tax.

Carney’s plan would cancel the carbon tax rebates and instead “create a system of incentives to reward Canadians” for making environmentally approved purchases.

“Carbon taxes on refineries make gas more expensive, carbon taxes on utilities make home heating more expensive and carbon taxes on fertilizer plants increase costs for farmers and that makes groceries more expensive,” said Kris Sims, CTF Alberta Director. “Conservative Party Leader Pierre Poilievre is promising to scrap the carbon tax and that will cut the price of gas by 17 cents per litre. Now Carney needs to be honest about how much his changed carbon tax will cost.”