The Fraser Institute has again exposed the Trudeau Administration for its lies..For years, the Liberals claimed that their carbon tax would have “almost zero” impact on the economy — without providing any analysis of the effects of the tax. However, average Canadians know how they are paying severely for this misguided Liberal-NDP policy..While Canadians are facing a housing crisis and staggering inflation, the federal government has increased its carbon tax to $65 a tonne on April 1 — on pace to hit its stated goal of $170 per tonne by 2030..In 2021, the Fraser Institute published the first independent, publicly available analysis of the estimated effects of a $170 per tonne carbon tax. The explanation is now re-confirmed, and the Liberals are proven fibbers..But why and how did the carbon tax come about? First, there is a myth-making setup story that goes like this....“The costs of climate change are being felt first-hand by communities in Canada. Extreme weather events threaten people's safety, their health, their homes, and their livelihoods. Canadians pay for these impacts when they are forced to repair and rebuild homes and businesses after a flood or wildfire, when they pay higher insurance premiums, or through rising costs for food, healthcare, or emergency services. There's a clear cost of a changing climate, so it can't be free to pollute. That’s why the Government of Canada introduced a price on carbon pollution across Canada in 2019.”.Then in response to this false story, comes the money-grab solution, which is to over-tax an essential commodity so that people will be coercively herded by price, to choose more so-called environmentally friendly lifestyle alternatives. The big problem is that there are few to no equivalent options available. This discriminatory penalty tax is supposed to shape consumer behavior into more ideologically acceptable ways of living. It is harsh social engineering via the pocketbook..The Fraser Institute Study found that, far from "almost zero" impact on the economy, the $170 carbon tax would have massive impacts, including higher deficits, fewer jobs, a decline in the GDP, and higher energy costs for all Canadian families. Nevertheless, the Liberals continued to claim the carbon tax was a good thing for Canadians, even going as far as to repeatedly claim that “most Canadians” would “get more money back” than they put in..Yet in recent weeks, those false narratives have begun to crumble. A new report from the Parliamentary Budget Officer confirmed that when the $170 per tonne goal is hit, “most households will see a net loss, despite the rebate payments offered by the federal government to offset the surcharge.”.Canada is driving down the wrong road called "virtue signal alley" with the carbon tax, which the Liberal-NDP falsely labels as a "price on pollution", perhaps $0.14 per litre of gasoline, which is planned to rise to $170 per tonne by 2030, or $0.37 per litre. Canadians must not let that happen. The Parliamentary Budget Officer (PBO) flatly contradicts the Liberal fibs, saying that the average consumer experience will be a loss of household income. By making fuel and heating oil more expensive, the PBO analysis says that the tax will slow down the Canadian economy, depress wages, add to inflation, and shrink overall incomes..We also note that while Canada commits self-harm, the USA, despite giving lavish wasteful subsidies to so-called "green energy developments", has no intention of ever imposing a Carbon Tax, as their citizens would never put up with it. They already are in enough political turmoil and division, and will not drive down that alley..“Of course, it's going to cost Canadians more than is rebated”, read a recent National Post headline. Environment Minister Steven Guilbeault himself even conceded that, “On average, households will pay more” in a recent CTV interview..It will be a long road hard to cancel the carbon tax and fight back against the internationally spun narratives from the UN that gave rise to these policy errors. The main international treaties and conventions on which current environmental policies are based have emerged from foreign summits, such as the Kyoto Protocol of 1997, whose stated objective was to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, the Paris Climate Summit of 2015 to fight climate change, which began to apply in 2020, as well as the 2030 agenda, including the 17 Sustainable Development Goals, successors to the Millennium Development Goals, approved during the Millennium Summit in 2000 at the United Nations headquarters in New York..Canadians have to vote their way out of this unfolding drama by actually understanding what others are doing to Canada. One must come to understand how naïve beliefs, eventually fall into the hands of the malevolent, who then impose their coercive policies..The Fraser Institute’s expert, peer-reviewed studies have regularly warned of the inconvenient truths in clear ways for Canadians to understand. While most voters in Alberta acknowledge the truth of what the Fraser Institute and Conservatives uncovered years ago, the Trudeau government and their NDP enablers continue to frame their record-high spending and ever-rising taxes as good for Canadians..The Western Standard continues to push back against these false narratives, and publish the facts so that reasonable Canadians can hold the government accountable.
