OTTAWA (LifeSiteNews) — The Trudeau government is expected collect nearly a half-billion dollars in sales taxes on the carbon tax this year alone.
On January 23, the Budget Office acknowledged that a five percent federal Goods and Services Tax (GST) on the carbon tax will cost Canadians $486 million despite repeated claims by Liberals that the carbon tax is “revenue neutral.”
According to the Legislative Costing Note, if the GST was removed, it “would reduce federal GST revenues by $486 million in 2024 increasing to $1 billion in 2031.”
Furthermore, GST charges are expected to cost each provinces millions this year, with Ontario paying the most at $182 million followed by Alberta at $96 million, Québec at $77 million, British Columbia at $58 million, Saskatchewan at $29 million, Manitoba at $18 million, Nova Scotia at $10 million, New Brunswick at $7 million, Newfoundland and Labrador at $6 million, and Prince Edward Island at $1 million.
The startling numbers come as the Liberal government under the leadership of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has repeatedly claimed no revenue is earned on the carbon tax.
“Our price on pollution is revenue neutral,” Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland told the House of Commons in 2022. “All the money goes back to Canadian families.”
“It is very important to note this is revenue neutral,” she repeated in the House of Commons finance committee in 2022. “The money is returned directly to Canadian families.”
Similarly, in December, Liberal MP Kody Blois told the House of Commons that the carbon tax was “revenue neutral.”
In 2019, now-Attorney General Arif Virani told Members of Parliament, “The plan is an entirely revenue neutral plan. It is not a tax.”
Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre condemned the $486 million carbon tax revenue on X, formerly known as Twitter, writing, “Trudeau’s tax on a tax: he charges GST on the carbon tax. He wants to quadruple these taxes if elected.”
“I will axe the tax,” he promised.
Trudeau’s tax on a tax: he charges GST on the carbon tax. He wants to quadruple these taxes if elected. I will axe the tax.
Sign here to help me: https://t.co/qwEfjEBKUk https://t.co/s1dgZBOHzj
— Pierre Poilievre (@PierrePoilievre) January 24, 2024
Trudeau’s carbon tax, framed as a way to reduce carbon emissions, has cost Canadians hundreds more annually despite rebates.
The increased costs are only expected to rise, as a recent report revealed that a carbon tax of more than $350 per tonne is needed to reach Trudeau’s net-zero goals by 2050.
Currently, Canadians living in provinces under the federal carbon pricing scheme pay $65 per tonne, but the Trudeau government has a goal of $170 per tonne by 2030.
The Trudeau government’s current environmental goals – which are in lockstep with the United Nations’ 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development – include phasing out coal-fired power plants, reducing fertilizer usage, and curbing natural gas use over the coming decades.
The reduction and eventual elimination of so-called “fossil fuels” and a transition to unreliable “green” energy has also been pushed by the World Economic Forum – the globalist group behind the socialist “Great Reset” agenda in which Trudeau and some of his cabinet are involved.
However, some western provinces have declared they will not follow the regulations but instead focus on the well-being of Canadians.
Both Alberta and Saskatchewan have repeatedly promised to place the interests of their people above the Trudeau government’s “unconstitutional” demands while consistently reminding the federal government that their infrastructures and economies depend upon oil, gas, and coal.
“We will never allow these regulations to be implemented here, full stop,” Alberta Premier Danielle Smith recently declared. “If they become the law of the land, they would crush Albertans’ finances, and they would also cause dramatic increases in electricity bills for families and businesses across Canada.”
Saskatchewan Premier Scott Moe has likewise promised to fight back against Trudeau’s new regulations, saying recently that “Trudeau’s net-zero electricity regulations are unaffordable, unrealistic and unconstitutional.”
“They will drive electricity rates through the roof and leave Saskatchewan with an unreliable power supply. Our government will not let the federal government do that to the Saskatchewan people,” he charged.