Kinew hints at extended gas tax holiday … or maybe he didn’t

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This article was published 21/03/2024 (583 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

As Tory MLAs hounded the government to oppose the federal carbon tax that’s set to increase April 1, Premier Wab Kinew either hinted at extending the provincial gas tax holiday or he misspoke in the house Thursday.

Kinew, whose government temporarily suspended the 14-cent-per-litre fuel tax on Jan. 1, was responding to a question from Progressive Conservative finance critic Obby Khan. The member for Fort Whyte was one of several caucus members echoing federal Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre’s calls to “axe the tax” and “spike the hike.”

“How high will this premier let gas prices rise before he realizes his empty words and TikTok videos don’t fuel our economy, but taking leadership does?” Khan asked during question period.

“I’ll never let the gas tax get as high as it was under (Khan’s) government,” the premier said.

Kinew did not explain what he meant — lower the provincial gas tax once the six-month holiday expires July 1, extend the holiday or, perhaps, something else.

Outside the chamber, the premier was asked to clarify.

“Sometimes you say things in the back and forth of question period that just reflect the moment that you’re in and other times you’re offering sneak peeks at future government policies,” he told reporters.

“I guess time will tell which one this falls into. I will say on the general topic of helping Manitobans at the pump, we’ll have an update in the budget on April 2.”

During question period, the Opposition badgered the NDP government for not joining seven other premiers in opposing next month’s federal carbon tax increase.

“Why is our premier not on that list?” asked PC Kathleen Cook.

The Roblin MLA cited a poll that last week showed 76 per cent of Manitobans and 70 per cent of Canadians oppose the carbon tax.

Kinew said the PCs could have lifted the provincial gas tax when they were in power but didn’t, and they tried to bring in their own carbon pricing plan in 2018 that the NDP opposed.

“They were all lined up to bring in their PC carbon tax,” he told the house.

The PCs under former premier Brian Pallister announced a “made-in-Manitoba” approach to carbon pricing with a “low and level price” of $25 per tonne per year from 2018 to 2022. The federal price was to start at $10 per tonne in 2018 and increase by $10 a year, reaching $50 per tonne in 2022, twice what Manitoba proposed.

Pallister said at the time that the federal government should give Manitoba a break because of all the money it had invested in clean energy via Manitoba Hydro.

A court decision backed the federal government, which brought in the backstop plan for provinces that didn’t meet targets, including Manitoba. It started in 2019 at $20 a tonne and is set to rise to $170 a tonne by 2030.

On April 1, the price of fuel at the pump will rise as a result of an increase in the federal carbon tax. It is set to rise to 17 cents per litre of gas (a three-cent increase), 21 cents per litre of diesel and 15 cents per cubic metre of natural gas.

It’s offset by carbon tax rebates that go to provinces where the federal price on pollution is in place. In 2024–2025, a family of four in Manitoba will receive $1,200 ($300 each quarter), for example.

“The vast majority of Canadians receive more money back through the rebate than they pay into the system — because big polluters pay the most,” an Environment and Climate Change Canada press release said Tuesday.

Kinew said earlier that Manitoba has a strong case to make for the federal government to lift its federal carbon backstop and that further efforts to get to net-zero will be unveiled in the provincial budget.

On Thursday, he told reporters that the PCs keep bringing up the federal carbon tax in the provincial legislature “but they just kind of gloss over the fact that that they brought in a provincial carbon tax, or tried to, in Manitoba.”

“I think it kind of deflates the argument that they’re trying to construct when not only did they, themselves, advance a carbon tax on several occasions, but they also charged Manitobans 14 cents a litre tax on gasoline,” he said.

carol.sanders@freepress.mb.ca