British Columbia has officially eliminated the consumer carbon tax.
Bill 8 was passed in the wee hours of the morning on April 1 following a marathon debate in the legislature.
The Carbon Tax Amendment Act was introduced in the legislature by Government House Leader Mike Farnworth on Monday morning. He explained that Bill 8 "sets the legislated increase to zero dollars, and changes the consumer carbon tax to zero dollars," and also "amends the Income Tax Act to eliminate the Climate Action Tax Credit."
Farnworth advocated for it to be expedited via Standing Order 81, which permits the government to advance a bill two or more stages in one day in "urgent or extraordinary occasions."
Both the BC Conservatives and BC Greens called on the government to allow the bill to progress naturally, however Speaker Raj Chouhan ruled that Standing Order 81 was applicable, and granted the BC NDP's request. Farnworth made it clear that the house would sit overnight to ensure all members would have a chance to voice their opinions.
That's exactly what happened. For hours, opposition parties grilled the finance minister and her colleagues over the contents of the bill. It wasn't until nearly 2 a.m. Tuesday morning that the legislation was finally given royal assent and passed into law.
In a strange twist, BC NDP, BC Conservatives, and Independent MLAs voted unanimously in favour of the bill following second reading, while the two BC Greens MLAs were the sole nay voters.
BC Greens leader Jeremy Valeriote was unimpressed with the compressed timeline, questioning why MLAs were given one day to scrap legislation that had been in action for 17 years.
"Why not take the time to bring forward a well thought out substitute for carbon price signals, revenue, and rebates?" he asked. "There's no requirement for [the bill] to proceed in this manner."
