The newly-elected NDP premier of Manitoba is calling on Ottawa to provide his province with carbon tax relief even as his government moves to suspend provincial fuel taxes.In an interview with Global News on the weekend, Wab Kinew said Manitoba deserves a break owing to its “credible path” to net-zero. “I think that there’s an argument that Manitoba is maybe one of the strongest cases you could make, that the price on carbon should be revisited in our jurisdiction,” Kinew told The West Block host Mercedes Stephenson in an interview that aired on January 7..Although 97% of the province’s electricity comes from hydroelectricity, about 60% of its home heating is with natural gas..“It’s definitely something that I know Manitobans would like to see some help with. We’ve put a lot of hard work in over the past five decades to build a low carbon electricity grid. We’ve paid the down payment on that mortgage. We’re in a position to have a low-carbon economy going forward into the future.”Although 97% of the province’s electricity comes from hydroelectricity, about 60% of its home heating is with natural gas.Kinew said Manitoba is working with Ottawa to set up a heat pump program to help lower-income residents switch their homes to electricity. He has also previously expressed support for geothermal.It comes after the federal government in October suspended the carbon tax on home heating oil, which mainly benefits Atlantic Canada. Since then, others including Alberta, Saskatchewan and even Ontario and the Northwest Territories have called for the tax to be eliminated from heating bills even though Ottawa has declined to allow more exemptions..“I think our province has a really strong case to make that during this time where we’re dealing with inflation, we’re dealing with the cost of living, that we should get some consideration, we should get a little bit of help,”Manitoba Premier Wab Kinew.Saskatchewan has even gone as far as to stop collecting the tax via its SaskEnergy subsidiary even at the the treat of being criminally charged.Manitoba is only one of three jurisdictions in Canada where the federal carbon tax applies to both consumers and industry, along with the Yukon and Nunavut.Manitoba is also the latest to implement a six-month fuel tax holiday which came into effect January 1 that is expected to save drivers about 14 cents per litre at the pumps. Ironically, it comes as the Alberta government reinstated its own fuel tax.“I think our province has a really strong case to make that during this time where we’re dealing with inflation, we’re dealing with the cost of living, that we should get some consideration, we should get a little bit of help,” Kinew told Stephenson.
