The Alberta government is suing Ottawa for what it calls a “double standard” in its carbon tax exemption for heating oil, saying it favours eastern provinces while excluding Canadians in areas like Alberta and Saskatchewan who rely on other forms of home heating.
The province has filed an application for judicial review of the federal government’s carbon tax exemption on heating oil, Premier Danielle Smith said in an Oct. 29
press conference. The province says the Liberal government has failed to apply national standards “equally across the country.”
“Last year, Ottawa decided Canadians in the East deserved a three-year break from paying the carbon tax on their home heating costs,” said Smith in a social media
post. “While we’re happy for these Canadians, Alberta, Saskatchewan and other provinces who heat their homes with natural gas have been deliberately excluded from these savings.”
The province says the federal government’s tax exemption on heating oil has created a “double standard” that is making Albertans pay taxes to stay warm during the winter.
Heating oil, a fuel source used to heat homes, is predominantly used in the Atlantic provinces. According to government
estimates, a Canadian home that heats with oil uses approximately 1,350 litres over a heating season, with the average increasing to 1,500 litres in Atlantic Canada.
Ottawa announced its three-year tax exemption on this fuel in all jurisdictions on Oct. 16, 2023,
saying it would “provide more time and financial support for the roughly 1.1 million homes in Canada using home heating oil, to switch to heat pumps.” The measure would save the average Atlantic Canadian household approximately $261 over the cold season, the government said.
An Alberta government
press release said Ottawa has “refused multiple requests to grant a similar carve-out on other heating methods from Alberta and others across the country who are also facing rising costs of living.”
Alberta Justice Minister Mickey Amery says it took roughly a year for the province to assemble its legal argument, and he expects it to take another year to work its way through court.
While Smith described the carbon levy as increasingly contributing to the financial pain of Albertans, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has said it puts money back into the pockets of Canadians in the form of rebates.
The Alberta government is asking the federal court to rule the exemption “unconstitutional and unlawful.” They argue that it undermines the fairness to all provinces implied by the Greenhouse Gas Pollution Pricing Act, a federal law that sets minimum national standards for carbon pricing.
The Canadian Press contributed to this report.
