Pierre Poilievre vows to scrap industrial carbon tax if he becomes PM

Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre says American and Canadian workers will lose jobs if the ‘trade war insanity’ continues.

Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre plans to scrap the industrial carbon tax, if he becomes prime minister.

“There will be no taxes on consumers, no taxes on Canadian industries,” Poilievre told reporters in L’Orignal, Ont. on Monday. “Instead, provinces will continue to have the freedom to address this issue how they like, but there will be no federal obligation to impose the tax.”

The announcement comes just days after Prime Minister Mark Carney started the process to eliminate the controversial consumer carbon tax on fuels such as gasoline and natural gas, a Liberal policy of which Poilievre has been deeply critical for years.

Under Carney’s plan, the carbon levy on industries will remain in place, which Poilievre has called a “shadow carbon tax” and a “trick.”

Poilievre said he’d eliminate the carbon pricing plan in its entirety, “including the federal backstop that requires provinces impose industrial taxes.”

The current industrial carbon pricing system lays out a federal benchmark for provinces and territories to meet. Only four provinces and territories apply the federal industrial carbon pricing system: Manitoba, Nunavut, Prince Edward Island, and Yukon. The rest operate their own carbon price system.

Poilievre also announced his plan to eliminate the entirety of the carbon tax in a six-minute video posted to social media first thing Monday morning, pointing to his party’s “Canada First Plan,” which lays out a slate of policy positions.

Carney signed a prime ministerial directive on Friday to bring the carbon tax for consumers to zero as of April 1 — the date by which the price was set to increase — though Conservatives have criticized the move, saying the prime minister must recall Parliament to do it.

“(The Liberals) brought in a carbon tax in this law,” Poilievre said Monday. “This law is still in place, even though Mr. Carney has signed a fake executive order to hide the tax for 35 or 40 days leading up to the election.”

“It is still in place, and it applies across the board,” he added. “The tax is scheduled to go up 300 per cent over the next five years, and hiding it for a few weeks will not change that.”

Poilievre’s “axe the tax” slogan has been a cornerstone for the Conservatives for the last two years. Meanwhile, Carney vowed during the Liberal leadership race to replace former prime minister Justin Trudeau that he would get rid of the unpopular policy.

The Conservative leader says his environmental plan will involve “carrot, not stick” policies and “boost incentives” to bring down emissions.

“We will expand eligibility for the clean technology and clean manufacturing investment tax credits,” he said. “We will reward heavy industries who make products with lower emissions than the world average.”

Asked by reporters whether he would commit to any emissions target if he became prime minister, Poilievre wouldn’t directly say.

“We have to focus on technology and not taxes,” he said. “First and foremost, we have to take back control of our economy.”

“What would my emissions target look like? I treat this as a global problem,” he added. “By bringing home production from more polluting foreign jurisdictions, we reduce global emissions while growing our own paychecks.”

Carney stands by industrial carbon price

On Monday, during a press conference from London, England on the tail end of his first international trip, Carney told reporters the changes he plans to make to the industrial carbon pricing structure will create “a more efficient system.”

When asked whether he still thinks keeping a tax on industrial polluters is viable amid U.S. President Donald Trump’s tariffs, Carney suggested other nations that Canada hopes to trade with will want to see some form of carbon pricing in place.

“We have the opportunity to diversify trade,” he said. “Guess what one of the requirements is to diversify trade to the European Union? Guess what one of the requirements is to diversify trade to the United Kingdom? Guess what one of the requirements will be to diversify trade to emerging Asia? It is to have a form of price on carbon.”

Expert weighs in

According to Chris Ragan, an economics professor at the Maxwell School of Public Policy at McGill University, Poilievre’s plan to focus on technology incentives is a “pretty small tail to wag a pretty big dog.”

Ragan says that while an emphasis on developing and using clean technology is “not a bad approach,” it likely won’t be enough to reduce emissions to 2030 targets.

The federal government has set a timeline to reduce overall emissions to 40 per cent below 2005 levels by 2030, and to achieve net-zero emissions by 2050.

In an interview with CTV News on Monday, Ragan also said eliminating the industrial carbon price would make achieving emissions reduction targets more difficult, adding that he was “disappointed” to see Carney eliminate the consumer carbon tax for the same reason.

He said while the output-based subsidy portion of the industrial carbon pricing system is “technical and complicated,” it makes the policy a “powerful incentive” for big polluters to reduce emissions and remain competitive.

“I would argue that the current policy is not challenging Canadian firms’ competitiveness, it’s maintaining it,” he said, adding that while scrapping the industrial carbon tax will likely have little impact on a company’s competitiveness, it will eliminate incentives to reduce emissions.

Ragan pointed to research by the Canadian Climate Institute, which concluded the industrial carbon tax will be responsible for about a third of emissions cuts from now to 2030. He also lauded the policy as “the lowest cost way that we know of to reduce emissions.”

“So, if you’re going to replace an industrial carbon price with something else, then it’s probably going to be worse for the economy,” Ragan said.

With files from CTV News’ Rachel Aiello