With the newly elected Jason Kenney United Conservative government set to take its place in the legislature this week, the long-anticipated war over carbon taxes in Alberta and Canada is about to begin.
During the 2019 provincial election campaign one of Kenney’s oft-repeated promises was to scrap Alberta’s carbon tax at the first opportunity. Now, with his party set to assume its majority place in the Alberta legislature, the time for action on the provincial tax has arrived.
There’s no doubt that Kenney and his fellow UCP MLAs will be able at an early opportunity to pass legislation to kill the Alberta carbon tax, put in place by the now-defeated Rachel Notley NDP.
“Albertans understand that the carbon tax is all economic pain and no environmental gain, and want to scrap the carbon-tax cash grab,” said Kenney.
“It (the carbon tax) isn’t just the biggest tax hike in Alberta history; it is the biggest lie in Alberta history.”
While it is a forgone conclusion that the UCP government will kill the Alberta carbon tax, it is equally certain that the Justin Trudeau Liberals will quickly counter by imposing a federal carbon tax on Alberta.
During a recent stopover in Alberta, Trudeau left no doubt as to his position.
“What we’re going to ensure is that nowhere across the country will it be free to pollute,” Trudeau said. “We’d much rather work with the provinces on that, but if some provinces don’t want to act to fight climate change, the federal government will, because it’s too important for Canadians.”
Premier Kenney says the carbon tax battle will be fought across Canada during this fall’s federal election campaign.
“The election will be an opportunity for Canadians to say that they don’t want busybody politicians telling them how to live their lives and taking more money out of their pockets,” said Kenney.
Anyone who thinks the Trudeau Liberals will give up the federal carbon tax fight in the face of Jason Kenney’s fighting words in recent days should probably think again.
- Singleton is the Mountain View Gazette editor
