Alberta Premier Danielle Smith is giving short shrift to the Liberal government’s attempt at rebranding the carbon tax as a ‘rebate’.In an exclusive interview with The Western Standard, she said a tax is a tax is a tax, and then tell people they’re getting more money when in fact it’s going up on April 1.“They're not listening. People hate the carbon tax, renaming it rebranding it relaunching it isn’t going to change it. People want it scrapped, and I just can't believe that they haven't figured that out by now,” she said. Speaking in Ottawa on Wednesday, Environment Minister Steven Guilbeault said the previously named ‘Climate Action Incentive Payment’ was too confusing for Canadians to understand. That’s why they’re changing it to the ‘Canada Carbon Rebate’."The previous name was a bit difficult to understand and even for many people to remember. So this will likely make it easier," he told reporters outside the House of Commons.."The previous name was a bit difficult to understand and even for many people to remember. So this will likely make it easier,"Environment Minister Steven Guilbeault.According to federal figures and average Alberta family of four could see rebates of up to $1,800 this year — but Smith said that’s only because they keep raising it. People are still paying more for nearly everything.She said the Liberals were forced to reconsider their signature failed policy after undermining their own argument for having it in the first place when they gave the exemption on heating oil — and then seem determined to to mince words with what it really is: an omnibus tax on virtually everything. “And it's been nothing but but a catastrophe for them ever since. So, I don't know why they don't understand that. We're coming to another looming deadline of that increasing a tax again on April 1,” she continued. “Consumers are already screaming uncle because of all the they don't want to rebrand it they want to they wanted to eliminate it. So that'd be my advice for the rebrand — it's not going to work.”In a joint statement with Environment Minister Rebecca Schulz late Wednesday, the pair were even more blunt in that assessment.“The federal government, in its flawed environmental activism, imposed a punitive carbon tax that did not reduce emissions, but instead, raised the cost of everything..It's been nothing but but a catastrophe for them ever since. So, I don't know why they don't understand that. So that's that'd be my advice for the rebrand — it's not going to work.”Premier Danielle Smith.Now, five years later, the federal carbon tax is universally known as a resounding failure. The carbon tax has punished Canadians while failing to reduce emissions, they said.“Canadians are struggling to pay a carbon tax on top of the federal government’s self-inflicted inflation crisis. We know that the carbon tax is costing Alberta families hundreds of dollars each year. In an act of desperation, Minister of Environment and Climate Change Steven Guilbeault and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau have the audacity to try and ‘rebrand’ the carbon tax – a cynical and desperate ploy that will fail.”“No ‘rebrand’ will save the federal government from its dwindling poll numbers. No speeches or sound bites will make a difference. Canadians will see it for what it is: a tax on the fuel they use to drive their kids to school, a tax on the food they buy, a tax on the businesses that they run, a tax on everything.”
