Carbon tax flak flies across political divide

The federal carbon tax took a beating from polar opposite sides of the political spectrum this week at annual conservative and progressive conferences held just blocks from each other in Ottawa.

In an address to participants at the Broadbent Institute’s annual Progress Summit on Thursday, NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh told his progressive grassroots base the party is charting a path away from carbon pricing.

Singh’s comments came one day after the NDP and the Bloc Québécois voted in favour of a Conservative motion calling on the prime minister to convene a televised “emergency carbon tax” meeting with premiers who are railing against the climate policy.

Conservatives have been hammering the Liberals on carbon pricing since Pierre Poilievre took the helm of the federal Conservative party and captured the imagination of Canada’s conservative movement.

Poilievre kept up the carbon tax criticism in his keynote address at the Canada Strong and Free Conference, an annual gathering of right-leaning politicians and their supporters.

But while Singh acknowledged the need for progress to reduce greenhouse gas emissions that fuel global heating, Poilievre only referenced climate change once in his speech while taking a swipe at the carbon price.

“I believe that we should fight to protect our environment and combat climate change with technology and not taxes,” said Poilievre to a packed room.

Poilievre briefly elaborated on the common conservative refrain “technology, not taxes” by presenting nuclear power — CANDU reactors and small modular reactors — as “the best way to add zero-emitting baseload electricity across our country.” Power from B.C. and Quebec’s hydroelectric dams can power liquefied natural gas operations and facilitate more LNG exports overseas, said Poilievre.

Singh made it clear his move against the carbon tax is not an abdication of climate policy. “We will create affordable low-carbon options and not punish people who can't afford to change the way they get to work or heat their homes,” Singh said.

Carbon pricing, effectively a fuel charge, will be responsible for an estimated eight to 14 per cent reduction of Canada’s emission cuts by 2030, according to a report by the Canadian Climate Institute.

Alex Cool-Fergus, government relations lead for Climate Action Network, told Canada’s National Observer by phone that it's a mistake to tone down carbon pricing given that the majority of people receive more in rebates than they are taxed on.

Premiers smell blood in the water on the policy, she said, calling the Bloc’s move to vote with the NDP and Conservatives as “cynical” given Quebec has its own carbon pricing system.

“It demonstrates a lack of understanding of the urgency of the climate emergency and the fact that by spending time doing political theatre is time that we’re wasting,” she said.

However, on the Progress Summit conference floor, some think progressives should not head for the lifeboats on the sinking consumer carbon-pricing ship. Marie-Marguerite Sabongui, who runs a climate disinformation children’s channel, Lil D’Bunk, is among them.

“I think we have talked about different tools for so long and have let perfect be the enemy of the good for a very long time,” she said. “I think in this case, we can take a thing and improve it.”

Sabongui thinks the NDP can find a way forward that doesn’t put everyday people against carbon pricing and “step into this landmine that the Conservatives are planting.”

The federal NDP is taking a gamble on what Singh calls a “focus on building unity with working people,” Singh said to reporters following the keynote address. Singh took shots at Ottawa for saying yes to big oil and gas and no to Canadians trying to make better choices for the planet and their wallets.

“That is not the way to build consensus and solidarity that we need to take on this fight,” he said.

Dave Bulmer, president and chief executive officer of AMAPCEO, Ontario’s professional employees union, told Canada’s National Observer that he thinks the current bedrock support for the NDP is in downtown urban cores like Toronto, where he lives. Those supporters are often passionate about addressing climate by curbing emissions and fossil fuels.

But there is also a traditional working-class NDP voter, “the small guy who could be the truck driver” living further afield, who objects to the carbon tax, said Bulmer. Bulmer thinks a shift from carbon pricing to a more industrial-focused policy “aligns with their democratic politics.”

The NDP, like other parties, has different wings that can sometimes oppose each other and complicate things, like the working class living outside city centres and young, urban-dwelling progressives, he explained. Bulmer acknowledged the difficult circumstance the party finds itself in, given the unpopularity of the policy. Bulmer attributes this to the Conservatives’ “axe the tax” campaign.

Bulmer is interested to see if Poilievre will even have a climate policy beyond his carbon tax rhetoric because right now, “there is no plan.”

“I don’t know if Trudeau and Singh will be able to get him to speak to [climate] beyond what he does right now, which is just a show,” Bulmer said.