The carbon tax is coming, and Nova Scotians are about to be hit harder than any other province.
On July 1st, the tax will come into effect and gas prices will hike by 14 cents per litre, the highest increase in the whole country.
Premier Tim Houston and the provincial government have been blaming the federal government for the tax. He believes it was forced upon Nova Scotia. In a press release, the PC’s said they presented a locally created plan for a greener future, which contained a realistic and common-sense approach to solving issues of climate change. They said the solutions proposed were rejected by the federal Liberals.
However, Nova Scotia Liberal Party Leader Zach Churchill says Houston actually had a chance to prevent the carbon tax from ever coming into effect. He says that a cap-and-trade system was introduced under the previous Liberal government that if renegotiated, would not have led to the carbon tax.
He says the cap-and-trade system was able to price pollution, meaning it put a cost on polluting the environment, but that cost was not reflected at the gas pumps.
“Premier Houston scrapped the cap-and-trade system in Nova Scotia in 2022, and that has triggered a carbon tax that is going to lead to the largest increase in gas prices in the whole country,” said Churchill.
In a press conference today, Churchill along with former Premier and current environment and climate change shadow minister, Iain Rankin, called on the PCs to introduce changes that would ease the burden of the incoming tax.
They’re asking the provincial government to immediately freeze the provincial gas tax, end income tax bracket creep, and implement a universal school lunch program.
“These are the three steps that the premier can take… to support Nova Scotians who are dealing with the increased possibility we are going to be faced with a carbon tax,” said Churchill.
