New Brunswick Liberal leader squeezed on 2 sides over carbon taxes
CBC
New Brunswick Liberal Leader Susan Holt finds herself being squeezed from two directions on carbon taxes after her recent call for the federal government to cancel a scheduled increase to the rate.
The Progressive Conservative government is pushing her to go further and join them in urging Ottawa to abolish the tax altogether.
At the same time, the Green Party says she has fallen for Conservative misinformation and is pandering for votes while ignoring that rebates return most of the money to consumers.
"I think she sees this as a popular position to take," said Green Leader David Coon.
Last Friday Holt joined seven premiers, most of them Conservative, who are asking the Trudeau government to scrap a planned April 1 increase to the tax.
"At a time when so many New Brunswickers are struggling to make ends meet, it's unreasonable to ask them to pay more for a federal carbon tax increase," she wrote.
The tax will increase on April 1 from 14.3 to 17.6 cents per litre of regular unleaded gas.
Holt's statement didn't mention the rebates, which will be $760 for a New Brunswick family of four in the coming year, plus an additional $152 for rural households.
In the legislature Wednesday, Natural Resources and Energy Development Minister Mike Holland said he was encouraged by Holt's statement, even though there was "some concern" she was flip-flopping for political gain.
"We'll give the leader of the opposition the benefit of the doubt, and we can clear this up right here and right now," Holland said, inviting her to co-sign a letter calling for the abolition of the tax.
Holt told reporters she decided to call for a freeze on the carbon tax rate because "we didn't trust that the Higgs government cared enough to do the things they could do to make life more affordable."
She has called for the government to repeal its legislated "carbon adjustor" mechanism that allows oil companies to pass on the cost of federal clean-fuel regulations to consumers.
That charge is 3.4 cents per litre this week.
The Liberals also want the government to remove the provincial sales tax from electricity bills, something it has so far refused to do.
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