Kinew must join Alberta’s carbon tax court fight
The Canadian Taxpayers Federation is calling on Manitoba Premier Wab Kinew to join the Alberta government and constitutionally challenge the federal carbon tax.
“The carbon tax makes it more expensive for Manitobans to gas up their vehicles and heat their homes and that’s why Kinew needs to challenge the carbon tax in court,” said Gage Haubrich, CTF Prairie Director. “Last time the carbon tax fight went to the Supreme Court, the federal government argued it needed a national carbon tax to deal with a national problem. But then it undercut its own argument for a national carbon tax by making an exception for furnace oil, which clearly favours Atlantic Canada.
“Trudeau torpedoed his own constitutional argument for imposing a carbon tax so it’s time to challenge it in court again.”
The Alberta government announced it has filed an application at the federal court challenging the constitutionality of the carbon tax in the wake of the federal government’s heating oil carbon tax exemption.
Last year, the federal government announced it is removing the carbon tax from heating oil for three years, but did not exempt other forms of home heating energy.
The carve-out disproportionately helps Atlantic Canadians. The majority of Manitobans use natural gas to heat their homes, not heating oil.
The average household in Manitoba uses about 2,091 cubic metres of natural gas per year. That means that removing the carbon tax would save the average home about $318 this year.
“When Trudeau announced his heating oil carve out, he admitted the carbon tax makes life more expensive, he admitted the carbon tax is all about politics and he left the vast majority of Canadians out in the cold,” Haubrich said. “Kinew needs to take this new opportunity to join other provinces and fight the carbon tax in court.”
A recent Leger poll commissioned by the CTF shows 55 per cent of people in Saskatchewan and Manitoba want the federal government to remove the carbon tax from all heating fuels.
The CTF published a column about a potential constitutional challenge in the National Post.