Prime Minister Andrew Furey shared an open letter to prime ministers on Tuesday, calling for a moratorium on future carbon tax increases until inflation stabilizes.
Furey said the Newfoundland and Labrador government is making “significant investments in environmental sustainability,” but the nearly 25 per cent tax increase scheduled for April 1 will put a financial burden on residents. He said it would be increased.
This is not the first time Furey has called for the tax to be repealed or frozen. He says he doesn’t think the tax is the right way to encourage people to choose renewable energy options.
“The problem with this particular tax is that Newfoundland and Labrador has limited options to change it at this point,” he said.
The tax is intended to encourage people to transition from carbon-based energy to renewable energy, but the state doesn’t have the right infrastructure in place to support that change, including limited electric vehicle options. Mr. Fury insists that he did not.
“What is the tax actually going to accomplish if there is no ability to change?” Furey told reporters Tuesday afternoon.
He said other states do not have carbon taxes and have adopted different approaches, adding that the state government is open to adopting other strategies that “do not punish people.”
CBC News reached out to the prime minister’s office for comment, but did not immediately receive a response.
Furey becomes the seventh premier to ask Trudeau to halt the increase, joining the premiers of New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island, Saskatchewan, Alberta, Ontario and Nova Scotia.
Nova Scotia Premier Tim Houston also sent a letter to Trudeau on Tuesday calling the increase “unfair and misguided.”
what to do instead
Carbon taxes are intended as a way to encourage people to avoid using fossil fuels.
The amount you are taxed depends on the fuel source you use. The more emissions you have, the more you pay. For example, a carbon tax on household heating oil would be: $0.1738 per literRegardless of the price of oil.
Furey says he rejects taxes as a policy, but not the intent. “That doesn’t suggest that we don’t have environmental obligations or that we don’t have a role to play on climate change,” he said.
Furey’s solution is to work with industries like the state’s offshore oil industry to reduce carbon emissions and use government revenue to build the power infrastructure needed to move away from oil and gas sources. It’s about focusing.
In his letter, Mr. Furey called for a halt to tax increases, rather than a complete elimination, until the economy is more stable and incomes have caught up with rising costs of living.
“We’ve seen some reduction in inflation, but we haven’t seen a rate cut, so the economy hasn’t had much time to feel that inflation has stabilized,” he told reporters.
“So I want to see all these things happen. But more importantly, I want to see the options available to people to change.”
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