Traffic is flowing again at the Nova Scotia-New Brunswick border after police shut down the highway earlier in the day due to a protest against the carbon price increase.
Samuel Field, media liaison for the group protesting near the provincial border in Aulac, N.B., said Monday morning that demonstrators intend to stay there until federal carbon pricing is done away with.
“We’re here to eliminate the carbon tax that is being placed on our Canadian citizens,” he said.
“It’s not good what’s going on. Our industries are being destroyed, our communities are being destroyed, it’s hurting our families.”
As of April 1, carbon pricing in Canada rose from $65 a tonne to $80 a tonne. At the pumps, this translates to the carbon price on fuel rising from about $0.14 to almost $0.18.
Field, a mechanic from Nova Scotia’s Annapolis Valley who owns a repair shop and a convenience store, said his customers are already feeling the pinch from the rising cost of living.
“It’s important for me to stand up for them, because I’m there to provide for them,” he said. “I want us all to succeed.”
Shortly after 10 a.m., the New Brunswick RCMP began diverting traffic in both the eastbound and westbound lanes on Highway 2 “due to public safety concerns.”
Just before 3 p.m., police announced on social media that Highway 2 near the Nova Scotia border had reopened to all traffic in both directions.
“Drive with caution and expect possible delays,” the RCMP said.
The Nova Scotia RCMP closed Highway 104 westbound at Exit 3 earlier Monday “in assistance to New Brunswick RCMP,” but one westbound lane reopened shortly after 1:30 p.m.
Field said the protest was not intended to block the border, and described it as a “traffic slow” to raise awareness for the issue.
“Everybody here doesn’t want to disrupt the flow of traffic,” he said. “We want everybody across Canada to see that we’re good people and we’re willing to stand up for one another.”
Driver Jim MacLeod, who was stuck in a line of cars in Aulac Monday morning, said he supports the protest’s cause.
“Yes, I’m supporting them, even though it’s costing me a bit of time,” he said.
Carbon price controversy
The carbon price increase has been controversial among citizens and provincial leaders alike. Multiple premiers, including all four in Atlantic Canada, have asked Justin Trudeau’s Liberal government to pause the increase.
In a letter posted to social media Monday morning, Andrew Furey, the Liberal premier of Newfoundland and Labrador, urged Trudeau to call an “emergency meeting of leaders from across the country” to talk about potential alternatives.
Furey, along with other premiers, has been calling for at least a pause on the increase, citing cost-of-living challenges. This includes the premiers of Alberta, Saskatchewan, Ontario, New Brunswick and Nova Scotia.
In response, Trudeau said the opposing premiers are welcome to come up with alternative plans, like British Columbia, Quebec and the Northwest Territories have, that meet the federal minimum price.
Trudeau and his ministers have been adamant that eight out of 10 households where the federal fuel price is in place receive more in quarterly rebates than they pay.
In a statement Monday, the office of Nova Scotia Premier Tim Houston said “we don’t need a carbon tax.”
“We have a better and more effective plan to reduce greenhouse gas emissions,” said the statement.
“On Thursday, we sent our plan once again to the Federal Government and made it clear our plan is still better than a carbon tax and will do more to address climate change than the carbon tax.”
The statement said everyone has the right to protest, but “closing highways is dangerous.”
— with files from Global News’ Suzanne Lapointe, David Baxter and Naomi Barghiel