Impending carbon tax increase, new EV tax draw ire for Albertans

It’s no secret that many Albertans are very opposed to a carbon tax increase set to take effect in less than a month, and it turns out residents of other provinces are also not super fond of the idea.

A new Leger poll shows 69 per cent of Canadians responded in a recent survey that they oppose the carbon tax hike, while 31 per cent are for it.

Most of the people in favour of the tax are between the ages of 18 and 34 living in urban areas, according to the data.

Franco Terrazzano, the federal director of the Canadian Taxpayers’ Federation says while the carbon tax gas been causing some outrage, there has also been frustration expressed at the Alberta government’s plan to enforce an electric vehicle tax.

“We’re against it, yeah we’re against it. I mean, why are we raising taxes? Look, they’re expecting to bring in about one million bucks from this on a $71 billion budget, so it’s not about the deficit at all,” he said on the Monday, March 5 edition of the Rob Snow Show, which airs weekdays on CityNews660 from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m.

As for the carbon tax, there have been some calls from Albertans asking for the provincial government to push back even more against the feds’ proposed increase.

Saskatchewan has announced that SaskEnergy would stop collection of the carbon levy from their customers this year.

This has resulted in federal Minister of Environment Steven Guilbeault challenging Saskatchewan, calling Premier Scott Moe immoral for breaking the federal carbon-pricing law, and that Ottawa plans on taking action.

It’s not only a carbon tax hike some Albertans are preparing for — the electric vehicle tax, set to go into effect next year, is also drawing some frustration from Terrazzano.

“Here you go — there’s a new tax in the form of an [electric vehicle] tax, they’ve delayed their promised cuts to income tax and right around the corner we might be seeing another fuel tax increase in Alberta,” he said. “So, we’re dead set against this.”

Terrazzano added that he believes this new tax is the province’s way of penalizing people for the decision to buy electric vehicles.

“This is a new tax, plan and simple, and if you ask every day Albertans, ‘Hey, what did Premier Danielle Smith run on?’ I bet they’ll say ‘fighting back against Ottawa’ and then they’ll say, ‘cutting taxes, and no new taxes.'”

The province has said more details will be revealed on the new vehicle tax come fall, when legislation is announced.

CityNews has reached out to the province for comment of if it is planning to take a stance.