CALGARY—For those manning the three-month-old protest encampment near a gas station just outside Calgary, the federal carbon tax is a symbol of everything wrong with Canada’s economy.
“With the carbon tax, it’s a cascading effect. Trucks bring in your food, the prices go up, and then there’s of course greed and monopoly at the grocery stores,” Jason Wright, who began protesting against the tax in April, told The Epoch Times in an interview.
Mr. Wright said he is one of five “core” protesters at the encampment, which he says is visited by a steady stream of supporters every day, including off-duty police officers. Drivers travelling along Highway 1 often honk as they pass by the site, which is adorned with signs reading, “Remove The Carbon Tax” and “I Am An Anti-Taxer.”
While the number of people visiting a protest, especially a semi-permanent one, is a poor way to gauge how many Canadians do or do not support the carbon tax, the polling numbers do tell a story. A Leger poll done in February indicated that
69 percent of Canadians didn’t support the plan to increase the carbon tax, while a poll from May indicated that 70 percent favoured giving farmers higher carbon
pricing relief on gasoline and diesel. What’s more, the
Conservatives have found opposition to the carbon tax such a political winner that “Axe the Tax” has become their most used slogan at rallies.
With the banks this month
adopting the new name of the tax rebate scheme—Canada Carbon Rebate—it begs the question whether the rebranding will bear fruit for the Liberals to turn the fortunes of the policy.
A Rebranding Effort
As part of their climate policies, the Liberals introduced the carbon tax in 2019 as one of the key ways to reduce carbon emissions. The tax is set to increase every year until it reaches
$170 per tonne in 2030.Ottawa has maintained that most Canadian households receive more money back in rebate payments than they pay due to the tax, while the
Conservatives say Canadians pay more because the tax increases the cost of food, fuel, and heating.
In February, the government changed the name of the carbon tax rebate from the “Climate Action Incentive Payment” to the “Canada Carbon Rebate.”
“The name was updated to the Canada Carbon Rebate to clarify its function, and make its meaning and relationship to the carbon pricing system more intuitive for Canadians,” the government
said at the time. Environment Minister Steven Guilbeault said that the previous name was “a bit difficult to understand and even for many people to remember.”
The
change came into effect on people’s bank statements beginning on July 15, when most Canadian banks began clearly identifying the quarterly direct deposits of carbon tax rebates, calling them the “Canada Carbon Rebate.” Previously, the rebates had appeared under inconspicuous names such as “federal payment” and “ETF Canada,” which kept the source of the money more ambiguous to the recipients.
Many banks had said changing the names was too difficult and that they had a limited number of characters to work with. However, Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland made a change to the Financial Administration Act in the April budget that requires banks to abide by the government’s wishes for the label, allowing them to be named “CdaCarbonRebate.”
Impact?
While it may be too early to tell if the rebranding effort reflected in bank accounts on July 15 has been effective, the announcement of the name change earlier this year in itself didn’t seem to have done much to change the popularity of the carbon tax.Among the latest available polls is one by the Liaison Strategies poll in April that suggested only 27 percent of people in Ontario support the levy, while 49 percent oppose it.
Christopher Ragan, an associate professor and founding director of McGill University’s Max Bell School of Public Policy, says there may not be much chance of reversing the declining popularity of the policy.
“It might all be too little too late, since the opposition to the carbon price has been whipped up so vociferously by opponents,” he said in an interview.
Katya Rhodes, an associate professor within the School of Public Administration at the University of Victoria, said the policy is “very visible” to Canadians at the gas station and on home heating bills, making it politically challenging to implement and maintain.
“People in general value losses in the form of carbon tax payments much greater than otherwise equivalent gains,” she said.
Ms. Rhodes also said that while the Liberal government has been “doing everything possible to increase the popularity of the carbon tax,” including changing the name of the rebate payments, it may be “a little bit too late.”
“I think there might be some marginal increases [in support] for this rebate coming into people’s accounts, but I don’t think it will dramatically change the popularity of the policy and popularity of the government.”
The finances of the carbon tax have been examined by Parliamentary Budget Officer Yves Giroux. Mr. Giroux has
said about 80 percent of households will indeed get more back from the tax than they put in, though it varies by province, but that the tax will reduce economic activity in some sectors due to the added costs that trickle down.
Former Parliamentary Budget Officer Kevin Page told The Epoch Times that there are strong opinions on both sides of this issue and that the tax will play a key role in the federal election next fall.
“It is inevitable in a democracy that we are going to have a major debate about putting a price on carbon. With or without a rebate, I assume climate policy will be a major issue in the next federal election,” Mr. Page said.
