Steven Guilbeault challenges opponents of carbon pricing in Canada to find another equally effective way to fight climate change.
Political opposition to carbon pricing has never seemed so strong in Canada. The leader of the Conservative official opposition, Pierre Poilievre, as well as six provincial premiers object to the price of carbon dioxide emissions being increased, as planned, from $65 to $80 per tonne on 1er april. In the case of the Conservative Party, we are even talking about axing the system itself.
However, according to Ottawa, this mechanism alone should make it possible to achieve up to 30% of these targets in terms of reducing greenhouse gases. What’s more, since its revenues are returned to taxpayers based on their income, 80% of Canadians would receive reimbursements higher than what it costs them.
“If there is someone, somewhere, who can find me a zero-cost measure that is capable of giving us a third of the reduction in emissions, let them come see me, because for me, that’s 30 years that I have been working on this and I do not know of any,” declared Friday the federal Minister of the Environment, Steven Guilbeault, on the sidelines of a forum on the green transition organized by the Chamber of Commerce of Metropolitan Montreal.
There is no question, either, of freezing the increase in the price of carbon which must reach $170 per tonne by 2030, he continued. Research reveals that the effectiveness of the measure increases with the price, and that this will be particularly the case when the $100 mark is passed.
The environmental activist turned minister also commented on the announcement this week by the Legault government of the gradual abolition of its subsidies for the purchase of electric vehicles by 2027.
He first recalled that Quebec was the first in Canada to introduce such a measure aimed at reducing the price gap between electric and gasoline models. He then was delighted to see the range of models offered to consumers expand, which possibly gives hope for a reduction in this difference as the time approaches when all new cars will have to be electric.
“We decided to maintain [les subventions], but it’s clear that, for us too, it’s not something that’s going to be there forever. When we approach parity, we will also remove it from the federal government. »