As someone who supports the carbon rebate and thinks it’s a good policy, I have to admit that Carney is right. Trudeau screwed up the implementation, and now a policy that gives most Canadians more money than they pay is a third rail.
Replacing the tax with something more acceptable, and equally effective seems like a good way forward.
I think the most reasonable complaint against direct carbon pricing is that people who are living in poverty can’t afford to wait for the next rebate to come in.
It sounds like Carney is just proposing incentives (which seems kinda ineffective for consumers), which wouldn’t have that drawback.
Untrue. At least in my case.
I live on about 16k a year. Plus all the rebates. Which total about 2-3k.
I don’t drive. I don’t buy gas. My utilities are part of rent. Besides, that i get a 140 rebate every few months which actually helps me. It’s actually a nice little perk for a) not killing the life on this planet and destroying the climate. b) being poor.
The only thing I purchase that actually consumes / emits carbon are the 2 tanks of propane I use every year for my BBQ.
I definitely don’t pay anywhere near the amount of carbon tax I receive in rebate.
That’s true for most Canadians: they receive more from the rebate than they pay in the tax.
And it’s going to be functionally all Canadians who are living near or below the poverty line. You can’t afford enough carbon to pay more in tax than you get back in rebate if you’re not rich enough to be irresponsible.
The system gives rebates before the tax is charged. No one is waiting for the next rebate, they already have it.
Yet another example of the carbon tax comms failures
Can’t you just pay it ahead of time?
I think the biggest issue with the carbon tax is that when gas prices go up, people just assume it’s all because of carbon tax.
That sounds like an issue with people, not with the tax.
I’d argue this is an issue with messaging. The government did such a bad job explaining to people what the tax was and how it works. For example, I talked with sooo many people who swore they weren’t getting their Carbon Tax Rebates but just didn’t realise that’s what the CAI payments were.
This is why Trump made such a big deal about getting those Covid cheques with his name on it. Because the messaging and education matters a lot more than the actual policy.
People would 100% remember getting a carbon cheque from Justin Trudeau. No one even knows what the fuck a CAIP is.
That would make sense. I don’t believe that’s how it was implemented.