Trudeaus carbon tax rebates coming up short
An Environment Canada report says while Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s carbon tax raised $2.6 billion in 2019, only $2.2 billion was rebated to households, small and medium-sized businesses, municipalities, universities, school boards and hospitals.

Canadian households subject to the tax received $1.97 billion in rebates, in 2019, the first year of the carbon tax in provinces where it applied at the time — Ontario, New Brunswick, Manitoba and Saskatchewan.

Another $225.4 million in rebates were carried forward for paymеnt in 2021.

Meanwhile $226.1 million earmarkеd in 2019 for carbon tax rebates for small and medium-sized businesses ($152.5 million) and municipalities, universities, school boards and hospitals ($73.6 million) — the so-called MUSH sector — were withheld for payment until 2020-21.

The numbers are contained in Environment Canada’s “Greenhouse Gas Pollution Pricing Act Annual Report For 2019”, released in December and first reported by Blacklock’s Reporter.

In Ontario, the carbon tax raised $1.87 billion in 2019, with households receiving $1.49 billion in rebates, with $217.9 million in rebates carried forward for payment in 2021.

In New Brunswick, the tax raised $92 million, with households receiving $72.8 million in rebates, with $11.4 million in rebates carried forward to 2021.

In Manitoba, the tax raised $193.3 million, with households receiving $157 million, with $16.4 million in rebates carried forward to 2021.

In Saskatchewan, the tax raised $270 million, with households receiving $244.6 million, with no money withheld.

The Environment Canada document, “Greenhouse Gas Pollution Pricing Annual Report for 2019” was first reported by Blacklock’s Reporter. The government says its numbers may be subject to further adjustments.

It covers the first year of the carbon tax when it was $20 per tonne of emissions. This year it will rise to $40 per tonne on the way to $170 per tonne in 2030.
The tax now applies to Ontario, Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba residents.

The federal government says 90% of the money raised by the carbon tax is returned to households while 10% is earmarked for small and medium sized business and the “MUSH” sector, to help defray the increased costs of the tax.

But the government’s claim 80% of households subject to the carbon tax will end up financially ahead through rebates is becoming increasingly suspect.

In February, Parliamentary Budget Officer Yves Giroux reported that while most affected households will still end up financially ahead, “by now accounting for the carbon cost embedded in the provincial and federal sales taxes, fewer households will be categorized as better off, on a net basis.”

The report noted that in Ontario, 40% of households are now paying more in carbon taxes than they get back in rebates, not 20% as the government says.

One of the reasons is that the federal goods and services tax, levelled on top of the carbon tax, will fatten the federal government’s coffers by $179 million this year, rising to $290 million in 2022.

The Trudeau government’s argument that 80% of households paying the carbon tax are better off financially through rebates also doesn’t take into account the impact of the government’s second carbon tax, the Clean Fuel Standard, to come into effect in 2022.

A report by Environment Canada released last month says regulations under the CFS will increase the average Canadian household’s costs by up to $208 annually, with no rebates.

The report says this could increase energy poverty in Canada and disproportionately impact low and middle-income households, seniors, single mothers, rural Canadians and other groups.