While Alberta Premier Danielle Smith has been speaking out against the carbon tax hike, she will be raising the fuel tax on April 1. Alberta NDP leader Rachel Notley said it is hypocritical for Smith to be complaining about the carbon tax hike. “Speaker, it just doesn’t need to be that complicated, because this premier has her very own hike she can spike,” said Notley in a Thursday speech during Question Period in the Legislative Assembly of Alberta. “To the premier, why won’t she stand down and axe her own $430 million fuel tax hike on April 1st?” Smith responded by saying there are different types of taxes. “Our fuel tax pays for roads,” she said. “Even the federal 10 cent a litre tax pays for roads.” The Alberta government took the fuel tax off for two years, saving Albertans $2.5 billion. She pledged to remove it again if prices go up. While the carbon tax is unfair, Notley said it comes with an increase in the rebate cheques. “Her fuel tax hike does not go to fix roads,” she said. “It goes to general revenue — from which the premier has wasted $400 million in healthcare boondoggles alone.” Instead of spending money on healthcare privatization, Notley asked why the Alberta government was not going to fix roads and save people money by spiking the fuel tax hike. At the moment, Smith said it is “a little awkward to hear the current leader defend the carbon tax when the future leader sounds like they don’t want to have the carbon tax.” “Mr. Speaker, we have a policy in place that as soon as WTI (West Texas Intermediate) prices go above $80, that’s when we take off a portion of the tax,” she said. “When it goes up above $90, we’ll take the tax off completely.” The Alberta government has been monitoring WTI prices. Since it promised Albertans it will run balanced budgets, she said it will do whatever it can to keep this promise. Notley said the only promise the Alberta government has kept is to increase taxes by $430 million on April 1. “Albertans have been hit with the largest rental increases in the country, the slowest wage growth, the highest utility rate growth and the highest inflation overall,” she said. She called having to pay a higher fuel tax “the last thing they need.” Although Smith has no control over the carbon tax hike, she said she can deal with the fuel tax. Notley asked why Smith would not spike the hike. While Notley wanted the hike stopped, Smith said the Alberta NDP left her with many problems to fix. “I mean why do we have problems with the utility rates,” she said. She pointed out Alberta has high utility rates because the NDP phased out coal without a plan to bring on new baseload power. Alberta Affordability and Utilities Minister Nathan Neudorf is looking into solving this problem. When the NDP was in power, Alberta had 13 quarters of people leaving. Its plan was for people to go to British Columbia to get jobs. The Alberta United Conservative Party has brought in more migrants. While migration is up, she said Alberta has the highest level of housing starts ever. The Canadian Taxpayers Federation (CTF) called on Albertans on Monday to contact Smith and demand she freeze the fuel tax. READ MORE: Taxpayer watchdog urges Albertans to contact Smith over fuel tax hike“You know Albertans are still fighting to afford the basics like home heating and groceries and they can’t handle a tax hike right now,” said CTF Alberta Director Kris Sims. “The premier is getting bad advice from the bureaucrats in Edmonton who are pushing her to hike taxes on Albertans.”
