Liberals dismiss accusations they intend to slap a green tax on pickup trucks
CBC
Environment Minister Steven Guilbeault said the Conservatives are lying about a secret government plan to add a green tax to pickup trucks.
There have been several tweets from Tory MPs, the Conservative party and Alberta Premier Jason Kenney in recent days insisting the government is about to extend a federal green levy to pickups.
"This so-called fee on trucks doesn't exist," Guilbeault said Wednesday, in a tweet responding to Conservative MP and leadership candidate Pierre Poilievre.
"It's fear mongering, plain and simple."
Poilievre said in his tweet that the government is going to "slap thousands in new taxes on anyone who buys a truck." He encouraged supporters to join his campaign to "axe the truck tax."
Alberta Premier Jason Kenney followed suit Thursday tweeting that "the Liberal-NDP coalition is planning a punishing tax on working people for buying pickup trucks."
The federal Conservative party as a whole joined in with multiple tweets Thursday and Friday, asking if Canadians could "afford a $4,000 tax on your truck or SUV?"
The green levy being referred to already affects SUVs. In 2007 the Conservative government under prime minister Stephen Harper introduced what they called a "green levy for gas guzzlers" as part of a number of offerings for "ensuring a cleaner, healthier environment."
A rebate for more fuel-efficient vehicles brought in at the same time only lasted two years, but the green levy is still in effect.
It adds between $1,000 to $4,000 to cars, SUVs and vans with higher than average fuel consumption when they are purchased or imported into Canada. There are currently 60 models tagged with the levy.
The vast majority are high-end luxury cars from brands like Lamborghini, Rolls-Royce and Bentley, which all have starting prices over $200,000, or big SUVs like the Dodge Durango and the Toyota Sequoia.
In their 2007 budget, the Conservatives predicted the levy would bring in $215 million in the first two years but has not come anywhere close to that, averaging about $15 million a year in revenues. Over 14 years, the total revenue from the green levy is $220 million, including less than $4 million in 2020-21.
It did not apply to pickups in 2007, and has not for the 15 years it has existed.
Guilbeault said the Liberals are not proposing to extend it to trucks regardless of the Conservative accusations.
When a U.S. company made its data centre pitch to some concerned Saint John residents late last year, he called the city an untapped “gold mine” for artificial intelligence projects.
Over the past seven years, when outgoing premier François Legault's government tabled a contentious bill, he would often justify it by saying it represented the will of the vast majority of Quebecers.
The union representing Manitoba's nurses is concerned a reduction in the number of nursing agencies the province works with could exacerbate staffing shortages during the transition period.
Developers convinced a Saskatoon city council committee Wednesday to give some more thought to proposed changes to a longstanding incentive to encourage infill.
A Regina real estate agent has been sanctioned by the Saskatchewan Real Estate Commission after he arranged to pay someone to tamper with other businesses' Google Business profiles.
Peter Bevan-Baker will not be running for re-election in the next provincial election, the Green Party of P.E.I. announced Thursday morning.
Businesses in Edmonton don’t have to recycle or compost — but that could soon change.
A day after two elderly Vancouver Island women told RCMP they had been scammed for thousands of dollars, a man walked into the detachment saying he took their money during his delivery work and was unsure if what he was doing was legal.
Schools across the Hamilton, Niagara, Burlington and Brantford areas are closed today after the area was hit with a winter storm overnight.
All school buses in Windsor and Essex County are cancelled on Thursday morning according to Windsor-Essex Student Transportation Services.
Newly released court documents in the case of Jack and Lilly Sullivan offer more details on the relationship between their mother and stepfather leading up to the children's disappearance more than eight months ago.
Another sawmill in northwestern Ontario is being shut down indefinitely.
Heavy snow throughout the Greater Toronto Area is forcing residents to rethink their Thursday morning schedules due to transit delays and a number of school closures.