An Inquiry of Ministry of the federal carbon tax from Environment Minister Steven Guilbeault shows small business rebates are a mere 14¢ on the dollar. The figures, published by Blacklock’s Reporter, were released after the Canadian Federation of Independent Business appealed several times for full payment of promised rebates. Guilbeault assured Canadians years ago when the Trudeau Liberals began “putting a price on carbon” small businesses would gain back cash grabbed through the carbon tax. “The Government of Canada is committed to ensuring the success of small- and medium-sized enterprises that are the backbone of the economy,” Guilbeault wrote in the inquiry tabled in the House of Commons. “That is why there are a range of supports in place to help small- and medium- sized enterprises.”In 2018, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s Liberal government passed the Greenhouse Gas Pollution Pricing Act (carbon tax) and promised $218 million in rebates to small businesses in Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Ontario and New Brunswick, the four provinces where the legislation applied. “In developing the carbon pollution pricing system in Canada the government made special provisions to help small- and medium-sized businesses by allocating a portion of all revenues to be returned specifically to them,” wrote Guilbeault.Since the carbon tax was implemented, 856 businesses applied for rebates and 723 were “approved in principle.” Of that group, “approximately 400” of those received payments, the environment minister wrote, not giving a reason for the shortfall. Small business rebates totaled $31 million of the $218 million Climate Action Incentive Fund, the equivalent of 14%. Conservative MP Brad Vis tabled the request for Guilbeault to disclose records. “With regard to the Climate Action Incentive Fund Small And Medium Sized Enterprise project stream, how much money was awarded to approved businesses?” said Vis. The Trudeau administration promised small business billions in multi-year carbon tax rebates under a Fuel Charge Proceeds Return Program. “There is no mechanism in place to return a dime to small businesses paying the federal carbon tax,” said Dan Kelly, president of the Canadian Federation of Independent Business on February 8. The federal government “has been sitting on $2.5 billion in carbon tax revenue collected since 2019 despite repeated promises to return it to small business.”.The small business federation, in a 2023 report called Fueling Unfairness: Carbon Pricing And Small Business, said the tax was costly. “While Federation calculations estimate small firms pay close to half the carbon tax revenue collected by government only 0.17% of all carbon tax revenues were returned to small businesses between 2019 and 2023,” it said.Carbon tax rates increase April 1 by 23% to 12¢ per litre of propane, 15¢ per cubic metre of natural gas, 18¢ per litre of gasoline, 20¢ per litre of aviation fuel and 25¢ per litre of heating oil.“Increases in the carbon tax coupled with minimal compensation are making the cost of doing business substantially higher, negatively impacting thousands of businesses,” said last year’s report. “Three in five small businesses have seen their overall energy costs increase substantially, over ten percent, in the last year while the majority have used the same amount of energy as in previous years.”
