Photo: The Canadian Press
Environment Minister Stephen Gilbo
UPDATE: 12:55 p.m.
Environment Minister Stephen Gilbo said conservatives were lying about a secret government plan to add a green tax to pickups.
There have been several tweets in recent days from Tory MPs, the Conservative Party and Alberta Prime Minister Jason Kenny, who insist the government is on track to extend the federal green pickup tax.
“This so-called truck tax does not exist,” Gilbo tweeted Wednesday, responding to Conservative MP and leadership candidate Pierre Poalievre.
“It’s instilling fear, simple and clear.”
Poilievre said in his tweet that the government would “impose thousands of new taxes on anyone who buys a truck.” He encouraged supporters to join his campaign to reduce the truck tax.
Alberta Prime Minister Jason Kenny followed suit on Thursday, tweeting that “a coalition of Liberals and the NDP is planning a punitive tax on working people to buy pickups.”
The Federal Conservative Party in general joined in with numerous tweets on Thursday and Friday, asking if Canadians could “afford a $ 4,000 tax on your truck or SUV?”
This green fee already affects SUVs. In 2007, the Conservative government under Prime Minister Stephen Harper introduced what they called a “green charge for gas-absorbers” as part of a series of proposals to “ensure a cleaner, healthier environment.”
The discount for more economical vehicles delivered at the same time lasted only two years, but the green tax is still in force.
It adds between $ 1,000 and $ 4,000 for cars, SUVs and vans with higher than average fuel consumption when purchased or imported into Canada. There are currently 60 models marked with the fee.
Most are high-end luxury cars from brands such as Lamborghini, Rolls-Royce, Bentley and Lamborghini, all of which have starting prices above $ 200,000, or large SUVs such as the Dodge Durango and Toyota Sequoia.
In their 2007 budget, the Conservatives predicted the fee would bring in $ 215 million in the first two years, but did not come close to averaging about $ 15 million a year in revenue. For 14 years, the total revenue from the green tax is $ 220 million, including less than $ 4 million in 2020-2021.
It did not apply to pickups in 2007 and does not apply for 15 years.
Gilbo said the Liberals did not propose to expand to trucks, despite accusations from conservatives.
“This kind of policy leads to division and distracts from the important work we all need to do to fight climate change,” he said.
The accusation stems from a recommendation made to Gilbo last month by the advisory body Net Zero, tasked with helping to guide government policies to limit greenhouse gas emissions.
The request to expand the green fee for pickups is one of the 40 recommendations in her presentation on the government’s new plan to reduce emissions.
Dan Wicklum, co-chair of the advisory group and CEO of The Transition Accelerator, said in an interview that the councils came as part of a set of policies that seek to drive all levels of government, the private sector and individual Canadians to strengthen and take responsibility for their own contribution to climate change.
He said pickups as personal vehicles are not very effective, but the body is also aware in its advice that any new fee must take into account the impact it will have on vulnerable groups.
“We felt like a pretty balanced piece of advice, and we’re actually a little disappointed when people misrepresent it,” he said.
Wicklum said there were no requirements for the government to listen to the councils, nor should there be.
“Our role is to give advice, but the government decides whether to accept the advice or not,” he said. “And so it must be in a democracy.”
Liberals are expanding a discount program to reduce the cost of buying new zero-emission vehicles for another three years and will increase the maximum allowable price to ensure that new electric SUVs and pickups coming on the market can get the discount .
All vehicle owners, including pickup drivers, pay the price of carbon on the fuel purchased for their vehicles. Pickups, which typically use more gasoline per kilometer, will usually cost more as a carbon tax.
ORIGINAL: 12:25 p.m.
Environment Minister Stephen Gilbo said conservative lawmakers were spreading lies that the government had a secret plan to tax greenhouse gas pickup trucks.
Federal Conservatives and Alberta Prime Minister Jason Kenny say the government is planning a “truck tax” by extending the green tax on the purchase of cars and SUVs with higher emissions to include pickups.
This is one of more than three dozen recommendations made by the government’s zero-net advisory body last month in its presentation ahead of the Liberals’ new emissions reduction plan.
The extension of the fee is not specified in this new plan, and Guilbeault says the government is not doing so.
He says conservatives are spreading misinformation and “instilling fear” in order to earn political points.
The former Conservative government introduced a green tax on cars and SUVs in its 2007 budget, calling it a “green tax on gas-consuming” to add $ 1,000 to $ 4,000 for the worst-performing vehicles.
Add Comment