OPINION: PBO confirms carbon tax is hurting Canadians

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Prime Minister Justin Trudeau should appoint Bill Murray to cabinet because the fight over the carbon tax feels like Groundhog Day.

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In the film, Murray’s character is doomed to repeat the same day over and over again until he makes some changes.

In real life, Ottawa’s carbon tax has consistently punished Canadians for driving, staying warm, buying food, investing in the economy and creating jobs.

And the Parliamentary Budget Officer (PBO) is doomed to continue to confirm this.

The PBO has released its third report confirming that the carbon tax is costing Canadians a lot of money.

“The average household in each of the backstop provinces will see a net cost, paying more in federal fuel costs and GST, and also receiving lower incomes (due to fuel costs), compared to the Canada Carbon Rebate they receive,” the latest reads PBO report.

According to the PBO, the carbon tax will cost the average family up to $399 more this year than the rebates they get back.

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By 2030, that cost will rise to $903.

These are annual costs, so these numbers downplay the total costs over time.

By the end of 2030, the carbon tax will have cost the average household as much as $4,388, even after the rebates.

Even that downplays the overall cost of carbon taxes. In its latest report, the PBO only calculated the cost of Trudeau’s carbon tax to consumers. Trudeau also imposed an industrial carbon tax and hid another carbon tax in fuel regulations.

Groundhog Day news flash: Higher taxes still don’t make life more affordable.

Carbon taxes cost so much because they touch almost every aspect of Canadian life.

Canada is a big country and the carbon tax makes traveling more expensive.

The carbon tax adds about $13 to fueling a minivan, about $20 to fueling a pickup and about $200 to fueling a large truck.

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Canada is a cold country and the carbon tax makes it more expensive to stay warm.

The average household uses 2,385 cubic meters of natural gas per year, so the carbon tax will cost families about $360 extra to heat their homes this winter.

Canadians need to eat and the carbon tax makes that more expensive.

The carbon tax will cost truckers about $2 billion this year and farmers about $1 billion in 2030.

By making it more expensive for farmers to grow food and for truckers to deliver food, the carbon tax makes it more expensive for everyone to buy food.

The Canadian economy is dependent on natural resources. The carbon tax will cost our economy $12 billion this year.

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The Trudeau government also imposes a sales tax on top of the carbon tax. This carbon tax on taxes costs taxpayers hundreds of millions every year. That tax money is not returned.

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Environment Minister Stephen Guilbeault claims the PBO report shows Canadians are better off with the carbon tax. He called claims to the contrary a “big lie” and “misleading.”

Nice try, Minister. As the PBO report shows, Canadians are only better off if you ignore the “economic” costs of the carbon tax.

That’s like saying you’re sticking to your diet, but only if you ignore the big plate of poutine you ate after your Saturday night beer binge.

The reality is that the carbon tax costs Canadians a lot of money and is not an environmental solution.

The PBO noted that “Canada’s own emissions are not large enough to materially affect climate change” and that the “potential economic benefits of reducing Canada’s emissions” would “largely accrue to residents of other countries.”

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That’s because Canada is responsible for 1.4% of global emissions.

This repeated bad news about the carbon tax would be Groundhog Day funny if it didn’t cause so much pain.

But Groundhog Day wasn’t just funny. Ultimately, Murray’s character learns from his mistakes. And then he can move on to a better life. There’s a lesson in that.

Trudeau has a choice. He can keep imposing the same carbon tax, getting the same bad economic news, and things will continue to get worse. Or he recognizes the facts: it’s time to abolish the carbon tax, make things more affordable and move on.

— Franco Terrazzano is the federal director and Kris Sims is the Alberta director of the Canadian Taxpayers Federation.

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