The Canadian Taxpayers Federation (CTF) is calling on Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to scrap the carbon price, which is set to increase on Monday, saying the average cost to Saskatchewan families is $525 this year.
The additional dollars are calculated after families receive the federal carbon price rebates, according to the CTF.
“If Trudeau cares about making life more affordable, then at the very least he wouldn’t hike his carbon tax again,” said Gage Haubrich, CTF Prairie director. “The Parliamentary Budget Officer is clear. The carbon tax costs the average Saskatchewan family hundreds of dollars more every year than they get back in rebates.”
The federal carbon price is set to increase at the pumps and in homes on Monday, to 17 cents per litre of gasoline, 21 cents per litre of diesel and 15 cents per cubic metre of natural gas.
Haubrich said Saskatchewan people won’t be able to afford this next hike and that they couldn’t afford what was already in place.
“The carbon tax makes it more expensive to fuel our cars and fill our fridges. Trudeau should listen to Saskatchewanians and stop hiking taxes that make our lives more expensive.”
Many Saskatchewan residents polled on the carbon price believe that it should be abolished amid uncertainty around it and the increasing cost of living.
Over half of the respondents also said they felt that cost-of-living concerns should outweigh climate change concerns.
Federal Natural Resources Minister Jonathan Wilkinson said roughly a month ago that Ottawa will no longer be giving the rebates to Saskatchewan residents because Premier Scott Moe’s government is refusing to remit the federal levy on natural gas.
Moe in response threatened that the province won’t pay the levy on everything else affected by the carbon tax if residents don’t see rebates.
“Canadians rightfully expect that everyone, including their provincial government, follows the law – and the price on pollution framework has been upheld by the Supreme Court of Canada,” said Katherine Cuplinskas, press secretary for the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance.
The minister in charge of SaskEnergy, Dustin Duncan, said he would be the one bearing the consequences of the province’s decision, which could include jail time.
– With files from Global News’ Brody Langager.