Achi news desk-
Ontario Premier Doug Ford criticized the federal carbon tax hike he kicked in on Monday, calling on the federal government to scrap it.
“We stand against the carbon tax … we know Ontario businesses cannot afford this costly burden,” Ford said Tuesday at a news conference in East Gwillimbury, Ont., north of Toronto.
Ford, who has long opposed the increase, said the province has a long list of agricultural organizations feeling the impact and supporting the Conservative campaign to remove the tax.
“This carbon tax has to go or in a year and a half, the prime minister is going. It’s as simple as that, it will go, I guarantee you,” said Ford.
“[Trudeau] it won’t be there. The ideology they have is just beyond me – I don’t understand it at all. “
The federal government’s increase of $15 per tonne of carbon came into effect on Monday. The increase in carbon tax will cost drivers an extra 3.3 cents per liter at the pump.
Since the Canadian government’s fuel levy was introduced in 2019, the carbon tax has added 17.6 cents to the cost of a liter of gasoline.
The increase will also mean larger quarterly rebate checks, which families will next receive on April 15 to help offset the higher cost of fuel, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said. In Ontario, a one-person household will receive $140 quarterly and a family of four will receive $280 every three months.
Ford said the increase in the carbon tax was “punitive, and overwhelming for companies out there.”
Last week, Ford touched on some of the transit investments and infrastructure changes his province has made at a news conference in Ottawa. He previously said there were other ways to reduce emissions rather than “punching into people’s pockets.
“We’re going to fight it tooth and nail,” he said on a farm in East Gwillimbury on Tuesday. “We have so many people here that I could fill this field, not with hundreds of thousands but millions of people who are against this carbon tax.”
The Premier of Ontario, Doug Ford, says that the carbon tax ‘has to go, or in a year and a half the prime minister goes.’
Drew Spoelstra, president of the Ontario Federation of Agriculture, said the levy takes money away from investing in clean farming technology.
Spoelstra said last fall, he dried 2,500 tons of grain on his farm outside of Hamilton, which cost $4,500 in carbon tax.
“We support a clean environment but farmers have no other options. We have to use fuel and energy to grow the food we all eat,” he said at the news conference on Tuesday.
While tax increases, so does the refund: Trudeau
Trudeau has said that while the price on pollution is rising, so is Canada’s Carbon Refund.
“It’s money in people’s pockets as we continue to step up in the fight against climate change,” Trudeau said in an unrelated announcement in Ottawa Monday.
“So all those chief officers are just playing politics who are busy complaining about the cost of corruption but don’t offer a concrete alternative that they think would be better for their communities.”
In a statement to CBC Toronto on Tuesday, the office of the Minister of the Environment said that the federal government does not keep any direct profit from the pricing of pollution in Ontario, and directs that the earnings of the fuel charge are returned to the province.
“Pollution pricing is designed to take into account the unique needs of farmers,” the statement reads.
“After its creation, the federal system exempted all gasoline and diesel used on farms, as well as biological emissions, so that about 97 percent of emissions on the farm are not subject to the pollution price.”
Crombie responds to Ford on carbon tax rise
Ford also took a jab at Ontario Liberal Leader Bonnie Crombie, calling her the “Queen of the Carbon Tax.”
The premier said he has spent years calling on the federal government to scrap its tax, adding that Crombie cannot say the same.
“For weeks, as the increase in the carbon tax approaches, Bonnie Crombie has refused to stand against it,” he said on Tuesday.
Crombie has previously said that if her party is successful in the next provincial election, she will not introduce a carbon tax.
“Doug Ford is spending all his time, energy and taxpayer money to distract from his failures, scandals, and the fact that his Conservative government has no plan to fight climate change and protect our children’s future,” he said. in a statement to CBC Toronto. .
“Don’t forget: the only reason Ontario has a carbon tax is because Doug Ford spent millions to tear up the Ontario-made climate action plan he inherited.”
Crombie added that the Liberal Party intends to fight climate change and introduce a “bold, progressive climate action plan” that will save money for families.
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