Since it remains unclear what the two leading contenders for the federal Liberal leadership — Mark Carney and Chrystia Freeland — intend to do about Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s carbon tax, let’s go back to the basics of the issue.
When the Liberals imposed a new price on Canadians for the emission of industrial greenhouse gases into the atmosphere, they automatically imposed a new cost on Canadians to pay for it.
There’s no free lunch.
Carney and Freeland can churn out as many new policies on carbon pricing as they like, but there is no way to avoid sticking ordinary citizens with the bill.
The Trudeau government, in addition to imposing a carbon tax on consumers, also known as the consumer fuel charge — the one Carney and Freeland appear to be suggesting they will eliminate — imposes a more substantial one on major industries.
On top of that, it has introduced additional costs to Canadians through government regulations and subsidies.
In total, the Trudeau government has created 149 programs to reduce emissions, to which it has already committed more than $200 billion.
The cost of all of these programs is paid, ultimately, by the public.
The one that attracts the most attention — the consumer fuel charge — imposes a tax on gasoline, natural gas and 22 different forms of fossil fuel energy in all.
It started at $20 per tonne of emissions in 2019, is now $80 per tonne and will increase by 18.75% to $95 per tonne on April 1, on its way to $170 per tonne on April 1, 2030.
The April 1 increase this year will raise the cost of gasoline alone by 20.91 cents per litre compared to 2019, on its way to 37.43 cents per litre in 2030.
The Liberals claim rebate payments they created under this system means most families paying the fuel charge receive more in rebates than they pay.
But even if true — and it’s disputed by the parliamentary budget officer when one factors in the economic damage the fuel charge causes to the economy — it is only a relatively minor component of the overall costs the Liberals have imposed on Canadians through their Byzantine system of multiple carbon taxes, regulations and subsidies.
That is the great Liberal carbon tax cover-up.