Moe to stop carbon tax collection unless feds extend exemption

Premier Scott Moe is putting the heat on the federal government about the carbon tax.

Last week, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced a pause on carbon pricing for heating oil in Atlantic Canada. That doesn’t affect Saskatchewan much, as most residents in this province use natural gas to heat their homes.

In a video posted to social media Monday, Moe said he wants the federal government to extend that pause to all sources of home heating in all areas of the country.

The premier said he can’t accept the federal government helping people in one part of the country and not another, so he proposed a plan to help Saskatchewan families: The province will stop collecting the carbon tax if the feds don’t offer residents a break.

“Today, I am calling on the federal government to offer the same carbon tax exemption to Saskatchewan families by extending it to all forms of home heating, not just heating oil,” he said. “It’s only fair to other Saskatchewan and Canadian families.

“Hopefully that exemption will be provided soon but if not, effective Jan. 1, SaskEnergy will stop collecting and submitting the carbon tax on natural gas, effectively providing Saskatchewan residents with the very same exemption that the federal government is giving heating oil in Atlantic Canada.”

The premier admitted the federal government may say that move is illegal in terms of how a tax is collected and paid.

“In most cases, I would agree with that, but it’s the federal government that has created two classes of taxpayer by providing an exemption for heating oil, an exemption that really only applies in one part of the country and effectively excludes Saskatchewan,” Moe said.

“As premier, it’s my job to ensure Saskatchewan residents are treated fairly and equally with our fellow Canadians in other parts of the country and that’s what I am doing today.”

Moe said Trudeau’s announcement “effectively destroyed two of the myths” that Moe said the federal government had created about the carbon tax.

First, the premier said Trudeau has always maintained the carbon tax is affordable since most people in the country receive more money in rebates on carbon tax payments than they pay as a result of the tax itself.

“If that were true, why would he need to remove it as an affordability measure on home heating oil for families in Atlantic Canada?” Moe asked.

The second myth, Moe said, was that the tax is applied fairly in all parts of the country based on a set rate for greenhouse gas emissions.

“Home heating oil is used primarily in one part of the country and it has higher greenhouse gas emissions than other heat sources like natural gas that is used in most Saskatchewan homes,” Moe said.

“The prime minister chose to make life more affordable for families in one part of the country while leaving Saskatchewan families out in the cold. How is that fair to families here in our province, where affordability is also an issue, where winters are cold and where most of us use natural gas to stay warm?”

The provincial government has had a long-running battle with the feds over the carbon tax, a fight that went all the way to the Supreme Court of Canada. In March of 2021, the Supreme Court justices voted 6-3 that the federal government had the constitutional power to establish the tax.

After Trudeau’s announcement last week, the Saskatchewan NDP joined the call for the feds to extend the carbon tax exemption to others across the country.

To wrap up his video Monday, Moe said the “the real solution” is to eliminate the carbon tax completely. He added that until that happens, the tax has to be applied fairly across Canada, which would mean no carbon tax on natural gas.

NDP motion passes

In the Assembly on Monday, the MLAs unanimously passed an NDP motion calling on the feds to remove the carbon tax from all forms of home heating.

“The Moe government’s support for our motion to suspend the carbon tax is a good first step. Talk is cheap and Saskatchewan people also expect their Premier to deliver real affordability relief,” NDP Leader Carla Beck said in a statement. “We need all levels of government to act like adults and focus on the issues that matter most.”

The motion said the Assembly “expresses deep concern over the unfair decision by the Government of Canada to allow oil used for home heating to be exempted from the federal carbon tax while offering no relief to families in Saskatchewan who rely on natural gas.”

It also criticized the federal minister of rural economic development for saying that if Canadians living on the prairies wanted the carbon tax removed, they should vote for more Liberals.

The government put forward an amendment to the motion calling for the carbon tax to be scrapped, and the NDP supported that amendment.

Trudeau has provided a carbon tax exemption on home heating for families in one part of the country, but not here.

It’s unfair, it’s unacceptable, and here’s what we’re going to do about it. pic.twitter.com/7tb9ZeTf0l

— Scott Moe (@PremierScottMoe) October 30, 2023