Liberal MPs Randy Boissonnault and George Chahal should split a pack of cough drops, because they seem to have lost their voices.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is removing the carbon tax from furnace oil for three years. That primarily helps families in Atlantic Canada.
Up to 40 per cent of households in the Atlantic provinces use furnace oil to keep the heat on during the winter.
How many homes in Alberta use furnace oil? That data isn’t available, according to the government of Nova Scotia, because it doesn’t exist…
Most Albertans rely on natural gas to heat their homes. That means Alberta families are getting zero help from the feds to keep their homes warm.
But that could change. MPs will soon vote on a motion to remove the carbon tax from all home heating bills.
If the motion passes and the carbon tax exemption is extended to natural gas, it will save families about $300 this year. It will save families about $1,100 over three years as Trudeau hikes his carbon tax.
Many Atlantic Canadians already secured carbon tax relief because of one Liberal MP: Ken McDonald, from Newfoundland and Labrador.
He was the only Liberal MP who stood up for his constituents and voted to “repeal all carbon taxes.” That took courage. And it’s helping his constituents stay warm this winter.
What have Alberta’s two Liberal MPs done?
Calgary’s George Chahal’s silence has been deafening.
The only thing worse than nothing came from the mouth of Edmonton’s Randy Boissonnault.
“I’m not concerned at all,” Boissonnault said, when asked about the “complaints coming out of Western Canada.”
But Boissonnault and Chahal should be very concerned.
Albertans have vocally opposed carbon taxes ever since the Alberta NDP announced plans to bring in a provincial carbon tax in November 2015.
A couple weeks later, a poll from Mainstreet Research showed two-thirds of Albertans opposed the tax. Ditto in 2016 when Lethbridge College polled Albertans on the carbon tax. And again in 2017 when Mainstreet ran the poll once more.
And guess what… Albertans still oppose the carbon tax.
A clear majority of Albertans want Ottawa’s carbon tax killed or cut, according to Leger polling from September 2023.
In fact, the only time Albertans were given the chance to vote on the carbon tax, they overwhelmingly supported the party promising to scrap it. That’s why the United Conservative government ended the provincial carbon tax with its very first bill.
Even the former premier who brought in Alberta’s provincial carbon tax is calling out the Trudeau government’s rank regional favouritism.
“To apply a carbon [tax] to some regions, and some fuels, but not all, is totally unacceptable,” NDP Leader Rachel Notley said.
Premier Danielle Smith also spoke out against the move, calling it “nakedly political” and demanding the feds “apply the same fairness across the country.”
Boissonnault and Chahal are also being outflanked by the federal NDP, who say they will support the motion to remove the carbon tax from all home heating bills.
Here’s the bottom line:
Albertans have consistently spoken out against carbon taxes.
Both leaders in the provincial legislature are against Trudeau’s carbon tax carve-out.
The federal Conservatives and NDP say they support removing the carbon tax from all home heating bills.
Boissonnault and Chahal are the only two people left in the province not speaking up for Albertans.
It’s time for them to pick up a pack of Halls to soothe their throats and speak up, because Albertans need carbon tax relief.
Boissonnault and Chahal must stand up for their constituents and vote to provide all Canadians with carbon tax relief.
This column was originally published in the Edmonton Sun on Nov. 3, 2023.
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