Newfoundland and Labrador’s Furey says tax causing ‘understandable worry’
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Published Mar 13, 2024 • Last updated 43 minutes ago • 3 minute read
Newfoundland and Labrador Premier Andrew Furey speaks to media following the government’s swearing-in ceremony at Government House in St. John’s, Thursday, April 8, 2021. Photo by Paul Daly /THE CANADIAN PRESS
Well, this is getting awkward.
It’s not just Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre calling on Justin Trudeau to stop the carbon tax hike on April 1, there are a growing number of premiers, too. Andrew Furey, the Liberal premier of Newfoundland and Labrador has written to Trudeau asking him not to raise the tax in just over two weeks’ time.
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“The coming almost 25% increase (from $65 to $80 per tonne) in the federal carbon tax on April 1 is causing understandable worry and people consider how they will manage the mounting financial strain,” Furey wrote in a letter sent on Tuesday.
“We ask for the collaboration of the federal government to address the ramifications of the current challenges families face and not to compound them.”
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I continue to stand up for Newfoundlanders and Labradorians against the federal carbon tax.
I am now asking Ottawa to pause its planned increase to the carbon tax, set for April 1st, as the high cost of living is enough of a burden on families.
The full letter is here: pic.twitter.com/fMW9coybTE
— Andrew Furey (@FureyAndrew) March 12, 2024
Furey now joins Ontario’s Doug Ford, Alberta’s Danielle Smith, Saskatchewan’s Scott Moe and New Brunswick’s Blaine Higgs in calling for the feds to call off their planned tax hike. Or, to put it in the language of Poilievre, they all want Trudeau to “spike the hike.”
Poilievre held a massive rally in Toronto on Sunday with nearly 3,000 people in attendance. While he’s been railing against the carbon tax since he launched his Conservative leadership bid, he launched a campaign on Sunday to get Canadians to call their Liberal and NDP MPs to tell them to cancel the 23% tax increase scheduled for April 1.
“April 1, April Fools’ Day, and with Justin Trudeau and the NDP the joke is on you,” Poilievre said.
He described how the carbon tax, only charged to Canadian businesses, makes everything from farmers to steel mills in this country less competitive than imports, which pay no tax. He said that competitive disadvantage puts Canadian jobs at risk.
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Ford has been calling on Trudeau for months to cancel the planned tax increase and took aim at it again as recently as Monday, calling it the worst tax ever for making everything more expensive.
“The federal government cannot hike up this carbon tax by 23%,” Ontario’s premier said.
“When the No. 1 issue on any poll you see is affordability – affordable homes, affordable gas, affordable groceries – and these guys are going to raise it on April 1?”
Ford said he didn’t understand what the Trudeau Liberals are up to with this move.
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Higgs, New Brunswick’s premier, put out a statement on Tuesday saying that Trudeau’s carbon tax has been brutal on the people of his province, driving up costs of everyday essentials.
“Even if he won’t cancel the tax outright, he can stop his plan to impose even more harm on New Brunswickers and Canadians by halting the planned tax increase,” Higgs said.
“Justin Trudeau is putting ideology above individuals and politics over people. The urgency is real and Canadians deserve better than this.”
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Smith chimed in on social media, saying that she backs Furey’s request.
“Alberta stands shoulder to shoulder with people of Newfoundland and Labrador in their opposition to the federal carbon tax, which makes life more unaffordable and hurts families,” Alberta’s premier posted to X.
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Saskatchewan’s Moe simply shared the online posts of Furey and Higgs, saying he agreed with them. Moe is in the middle of a fight with the federal government over whether to charge the carbon tax on home heating fuels in his province.
After Trudeau “paused” the carbon tax on home heating oil — which is predominantly used in Atlantic Canada, where the Liberals have a lot of MPs — Moe refused to charge and remit the carbon tax via provincially owned natural gas provider SaskEnergy.
While several of the premiers opposed to the carbon tax hike can be described as conservative, even Manitoba’s NDP Premier Wab Kinew has raised concerns about the impact of the carbon tax on family budgets in his province.
There is no doubt that Trudeau will face tremendous pressure on this file next week when the House of Commons gathers for their only sitting before the April 1 tax hike.
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