(Ottawa) The New Democrats and the Bloc on Wednesday supported the Conservative motion – non-binding – which asks Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to hold an “emergency meeting”, televised, with his counterparts from the provinces and territories on the subject of carbon pricing.
Mr. Trudeau has until now always rejected this request for such a meeting from six provincial premiers — those of Ontario and the Prairie and Atlantic provinces.
He asserts that prime ministers prefer to play partisan politics rather than present viable options for federal action.
New Democratic Party environment critic Laurel Collins said Wednesday that carbon pricing is not the only solution to combat climate change and that New Democrats are open to others options that the prime ministers could present.
Mme Collins accuses the Liberal government of using climate as a divisive issue and believes that the federal-provincial meeting would be a good way to bring Canadians together and encourage the emergence of new ideas.
The leader of the Bloc Québécois, Yves-François Blanchet, explained Wednesday before the question period in the House that his party had obtained an amendment to the Conservative motion to clarify that Quebec already had “a carbon tariff which is not the carbon tax”.
” SO […] we put the lid once and for all on the idea that the carbon tax would apply to Quebec: the very wording of the motion implies that the federal government’s carbon tax does not apply to Quebec,” he said. explain.
According to him, a federal-provincial meeting will be “a great opportunity to ensure that the issue of climate change crosses partisan lines, to make space again for knowledge and science, so that we can achieve something that will progress beyond confrontation, beyond perpetual confrontation on this type of issue.”
The New Democrats and the Bloc therefore supported the non-binding Conservative motion on Wednesday afternoon in the House requiring Mr. Trudeau to sit down with the premiers of the provinces and territories within five weeks. Liberal MPs voted against.
“Trudeau has a responsibility to listen to Canada’s premiers about the misery his carbon tax is causing Canadians,” the Conservative Party said in a statement Wednesday after the vote. At this meeting, he must also allow provinces to opt out of the federal carbon tax and seek other responsible ideas to reduce emissions without taxes. »
The Conservatives claim that this price on carbon emissions makes life less affordable for Canadians. The Liberals counter that the rebates paid to households by Ottawa mean that most Canadians end up with more money in the end.