The federal carbon tax rises by $10 per ton on Thursday.
That means the prince on pollution is now $40 per ton.
As a result many Canadians will have to pay more at the gas pump, or simply to heat their homes, but they will also get a bigger rebate cheque from Ottawa when they file their income taxes next year.
Ottawa still considers the carbon tax to be “revenue neutral”.
The yearly increase is part of a national plan first introduced by the current federal government and Justin Trudeau in 2018 to flight climate change, and meet the pollution reduction goals they set out for Canadians.
Under the Greenhouse Gas Pollution Pricing Act, the federal government introduced its carbon pricing plan for provinces that did not have a carbon pricing model of their own, it was also recently held up by the Supreme Court of Canada in a 6-3 vote after being challenged for it’s constitutionality by Saskatchewan, Alberta and Ontario.
Related:
The tax started at $20 per ton in 2019, and will rise $10 per ton each year until reaching $50 per ton in 2022. After that it will rise by $15 per year until it maxes out at $170 per ton in 2030, according to Ottawa’s current proposal.
According to the Canada Revenue Agency the latest increase will contribute to a rise of 8.8 cents per litre on gasoline for the average consumer.
By 2030 if the current rising trend holds that would roughly translate to an increase of 36.3 cents per litre of gasoline, when compared to what Canadians were paying at the pump before the tax was introduced.
Those eligible for carbon tax rebate cheques from the federal government are residents of Saskatchewan, Alberta, Manitoba and Ontario.
