“No more tax!” » or, in English in the text, “Axe the tax!” » (“remove the tax”): the revolt against the carbon tax continues to grow in Canada. This tax on pollution, introduced by Liberal Prime Minister Justin Trudeau in 2019, is one of the flagship measures of his policy to fight global warming. The government estimates that it will help reduce greenhouse gas emissions by up to a third by 2030.
However, its increase, Monday 1er April – it went from 65 Canadian dollars (44 euros) to 80 dollars per tonne, or 17 cents per liter of gasoline, and should continue to grow, until reaching 170 dollars in 2030 –, caused a new surge in fever among his opponents. An offensive facilitated by Justin Trudeau’s own reversals on the issue. In October 2023, it opened a breach in its own pollution taxation system, by suspending payment for three years for all consumers heating with oil.
Applied in eight of the ten Canadian provinces and two of its territories (the others having their own carbon market), this environmental tax is now contested by seven provincial ministers. In action, the conservative leaders of Ontario, or even the oil and gas provinces of the west of the country, such as Alberta, who have never stopped fighting against the very principle of this pricing, on the grounds , according to them, that it would harm the attractiveness of their industries. 1er January, the Premier of Saskatchewan even decided unilaterally to exempt consumers of natural gas and electricity in the province from paying this tax.
At the end of March, the so-called Atlantic provinces, in the east of the country, in turn called – in vain – on the federal government to renounce any further increase, worried about its inflationary effect on taxpayers’ wallets. Arguments taken up again and again by Justin Trudeau’s main political rival, the leader of the Conservative Party of Canada, Pierre Poilievre, who is leading the voting intentions: “ This tax pushes production out of the country and causes Canadians to go hungry », he said on March 13, while visiting Newfoundland and Labrador.
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To date, the offensive is essentially political. However, it is based on growing popular discontent. A poll carried out by the Angus Reid Institute, released on March 25, revealed that 40% of Canadians called for the tax to be abolished. For several weeks, several demonstrations by hundreds of dissatisfied consumers have disrupted traffic on several highways in the country.
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