Rustic paradise 40 minutes from Saint John not rural enough for extra carbon rebate

By just about every reasonable definition, Bayswater, New Brunswick, is a rural area.

There's the scenic ride on the Westfield ferry from the tip of the Kingston Peninsula, part of the 40-minute drive to Saint John.

In the other direction, there's the narrow, winding, bumpy Route 845 leading to the postcard-perfect, 104-year-old covered bridge at Milkish Inlet.

And there's the gorgeous view of the hills surrounding Grand Bay, where the St. John River makes a sharp turn to meet the Kennebecasis — a panorama Cathy and Doug Morrison enjoy from their back deck.

Yet for federal bureaucrats in Ottawa, this rustic piece of paradise is metropolitan — part of the Statistics Canada-designated "census metropolitan area," or CMA, of Saint John.

That means people here won't get the rural top-up on their federal carbon tax rebates. 

"We've always assumed that we lived in rural New Brunswick, till we put in an application for the rural supplement for the carbon tax rebate," said Cathy Morrison, tongue partly in cheek.

There are no traffic lights out here, nor any sidewalks, or buses, or grocery stores — nothing the least bit metropolitan.

So when Morrison realized that the CMA designation put her and her husband on the wrong side of the rural rebate criteria, she contacted provincial MLAs and federal MPs.

"We began to question our own interpretation of the mapping when we got replies from them saying 'We didn't realize that this was a problem,'" she said.

For the Morrisons, the new doubled top-up starting in April would mean an additional $27.60 each quarter above their $138 rebate — if they were eligible. 

"This isn't money that's going to break the bank," said Cathy Morrison. "But on principle, it just seemed wrong that they were using this metric when perhaps there were other things they could be using."

Even more annoying to the Morrisons, everyone in New Brunswick outside of the CMAs of Saint John and Moncton are eligible for the "rural" top-up — including everyone in Fredericton.

That's right: people living in the provincial capital's downtown core — folks who don't emit much carbon as they walk or cycle to work, to stores and to their favourite cafés and bars while occasionally dodging city buses at busy intersections — will get the rural top-up.