Tories welcome - and question - Holt's call for pause on carbon tax hike

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The provincial government is welcoming Liberal Leader Susan Holt’s call for the federal government to pause the April 1 carbon tax hike, but is questioning whether she’s just trying to win votes in this year’s election. 

That’s led Holt to decry what she says is the failure of the Higgs government to do enough to help New Brunswickers struggling with the rising cost of living.

Green party Leader David Coon, however, says provincial and federal conservatives are fuelling misinformation about the carbon tax, and Holt has been sucked in too.

On Friday afternoon, the Liberals distributed copies of a letter written by Holt to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, urging him to pause the hike.

“At a time when so many New Brunswickers are struggling to make ends meet, it’s unreasonable to ask them to pay more for a federal carbon tax increase,” Holt wrote. “Today, we join our colleagues from across Atlantic Canada in asking that the federal government suspend the scheduled increase of the carbon tax on April 1 until April 2025.”

The carbon tax adds an extra 14.3 cents a litre to the price of gasoline, while also impacting the cost of other carbon emitting fuels, including natural gas. That tax will rise to 17.6 cents a litre on April 1.

On Monday, the Tories issued a statement from Natural Resources and Energy Development Minister Mike Holland.

“Susan Holt announced on Friday that she agrees with our PC government position that the federal Liberal government should not raise the carbon tax on April 1,” Holland said.  “Up until this point, Susan Holt has been in complete alignment with Justin Trudeau and his financial policies, including the carbon tax.

“If this change in position is only for temporary political gain in an election year, that’s very concerning. Does she simply want to pause the carbon tax until the election is over? Or does she agree with us that the tax needs to be axed completely?

“The legislature will be opening this week, and every opportunity we have, we will ask Susan Holt to join the PCNB in calling for the complete cancellation of the carbon tax. We look forward to her clarifying her position.”

Holt described Holland’s statement as “embarrassing.”

“Minister Holland and Premier (Blaine) Higgs have refused to help New Brunswickers struggling under the burden of increased taxes. We want to see (them) use their power to immediately remove the six-cent carbon adjuster that they dumped on New Brunswickers to protect the refinery,” she said.

“They have the power to … make life more affordable for New Brunswickers, and they’re doing nothing.”

But the government has been making moves in recent months to do just that, including more help for seniors and people on social assistance, and, most recently, a $300 “affordability” payment for working households with a net annual income of $70,000 or less. The minimum wage will also rise on April 1.

“I think the $300 affordability payment is laughable … it’s excluded some of the very people that it needs to help, and the government doesn’t want to spend any money there,” she said.

“They could take the tax off of home electricity today, because New Brunswickers are staring down the barrel of a 9.8 per cent increase. And we have called on them repeatedly to remove the PST on NB Power bills, and they have voted against it,” she said.

“They could undertake property tax reform, but they won’t. They voted against taking the tax off gas. They have done nothing to help hard-working people who have to fill up to go to work each week and care for their loved ones.”

On the carbon tax, Holt says the solution is a home-grown plan. She said that when Higgs developed and implemented his own plan, “not a cent” was given back to New Brunswickers.

Coon, meanwhile, said Holt has “bought into” the national debate and misinformation over the tax, which “is full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.”

“What I hear from people in my constituency office and from around the province when it comes to affordability, is (about) housing,” he said. “Where’s the rent cap? Where’s the reduction in taxes on building new affordable housing?

“It’s food (prices). These are the costs that are really causing the problems for people.”

Coon said he’s “not going, in any way, to defend Trudeau’s climate policies … but (federal Conservative Leader Pierre) Poilievre and Higgs are deliberately misleading New Brunswickers, and Susan Holt’s fallen right in with that.”

The prime minister’s office, in an emailed statement Monday from senior communications advisor and press secretary Katherine Cuplinskas, said: “We have put a price on pollution to support Canadians families – today and for tomorrow. In addition to leaving Canada’s next generation with cleaner air, water, forests, and oceans, we are putting up to $900 back into the pockets of New Brunswick families through the Canada Carbon Rebates. By law, the carbon price is revenue neutral for the federal government. That means any reduction in the 2024-25 Canada Carbon Rebates would leave low and middle-income New Brunswickers worse off.”

On Saturday afternoon, Poilievre held a rally at the Fredericton Inn. “Axing” the carbon tax was high on his list of talking points.