Alberta Premier Jason Kenney is due to introduce a motion in the province’s legislature calling for a halt to federal carbon tax hikes.
© / Radio-Canada
Alberta Premier Jason Kenney believes the carbon tax hike will increase the cost of living in the province.
Jason Kenney has compared the carbon tax increase to $50 per tonne of emissions scheduled for April Fool’s Day. The motion also asks Ottawa to abandon any increase subsequent to that of 2022.
Stopping this increase in the tax would make it possible to attenuate rising inflation or skyrocketing gasoline prices or food, insisted the politician. They are not optional or luxurious expenses that people can do without.»
He also recalled his government’s decision to suspend the collection of the provincial fuel taxalso scheduled for next month.
This measure should save Albertans 13 cents per liter on gasoline. However, the carbon tax would take 3 cents per liter out of these savings for a total of regarding 10 cents, Jason Kenney said.
The Prime Minister castigated his federal counterpart and his new allycalling the pollution pricing measure “a Liberal-New Democratic Party (NDP) tax” intended to “take money out of the pockets of Albertans”.
The Alberta Premier has often expressed his dissatisfaction with the taxation of greenhouse gas emissions.
For example, he ended the carbon tax introduced by the previous NDP government when he came to power in 2019.
He also accused Ottawa of encroaching on provincial jurisdiction with its pollution pricing plan. This case even went to the Supreme Court of Canada, where pricing has been recognized as constitutional.
Jason Kenney expects the motion presented to be accepted unanimously.
