OTTAWA — Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre took aim at Carney's newly formed majority Liberal government Tuesday and pushed for more relief over fuel prices, bringing forward an opposition motion calling for longer term relief at the pumps. "We should eliminate the gas tax for the rest of the year, reducing cost by 25 cents a litre, 20 dollars on a tank of gas, 1,200 dollars for the whole year," Poilievre said.The motion calls for the removal of the federal fuel excise tax, worth 10 cents a litre, and the GST on gasoline and diesel, worth eight cents a litre, for the rest of the calendar year. The motion also calls for the permanent elimination of the Clean Fuel Standard worth seven cents a litre at the pump and projected to rise to 17 cents by 2030. The motion calls for the permanent removal of the industrial carbon tax, which is set to rise to $170 a tonne. The industrial carbon tax which was left unremoved by Carney’s earlier removal of the consumer carbon tax in March of last year. That tax is projected by the Parliamentary Budget Officer to cost 50,000 jobs and shrink the economy by 1.3%. .On April 1, Canadians were paying $1.78 per litre while Americans paid the equivalent of $1.50 per litre in Canadian dollars. Conservatives put the total cost of the proposed relief at $5.3 billion, arguing it could be funded by cutting what they describe as wasteful Liberal spending rather than passed on to taxpayers, noting the government was collecting a windfall of $9 billion to $10 billion in additional revenues off elevated gas prices.Carney announced partial fuel tax relief Tuesday, though it falls short of what Conservatives had demanded in scope and duration. Poilievre also used his remarks to address Monday night's byelection sweep, in which the Liberals won all three contested ridings and brought their seat total to 174."Just yesterday, the prime minister cobbled together a costly majority that Canadians never voted for," Poilievre said. "He acted against the interest of the public. This is not a majority that Canadians have chosen, this is a majority that the PM has imposed by backroom deals."Poilievre asserted that he would lead the Conservatives into the next election in the closing of his remarks in the house. Newly elected NDP leader Avi Lewis rejected both the Liberal and Conservative approaches to fuel prices. "It's time for price caps on gas to stop oil companies from price-gouging Canadians — and a windfall profits tax on war-time oil revenues," Lewis said, accusing both parties of drawing from public funds rather than oil company profits.
