GIESBRECHT: Carbon tax will bleed you dry if you live out of town

On April 1, the federal carbon tax will increase from $65 to $80 per tonne, an increase of 23%. This means the carbon tax will make up 17.6 cents of the cost of a litre of gasoline, an increase of 3.3 cents from the current 14.3 cents. But, it doesn't stop there. The tax will continue to rise steadily after that. This is on top of fossil fuel taxes that already account for up to half of what Canadians pay for each litre of gasoline or diesel. We rural residents will bear the brunt of this tax. Many people — such as myself — live in rural areas specifically because we can’t afford to buy a house in the city. Others live here because we prefer the rural lifestyle. Still others live here because that is where our farms are.But now, our costs of necessary transportation are becoming punishing. Farmers will be particularly hard hit by this divisive tax.The federal government response is to claim that rebates, which depend on choosing to do less driving, are the answer. As a rural resident I can confidently say that this response is misinformation.I’ll use my family as an example. My wife and I live in rural Manitoba. Our grown children live many miles away and we frequently visit them. Driving our vehicle is the only way to do that. There is no longer a Greyhound bus option. The rural gravel roads we drive on demand a heavier vehicle than one might be able to use in the city. A Rio simply can’t do the job of driving through winter’s deep snow or spring’s soupy gravel. My elderly mother-in-law lives 50 miles away in a senior centre and requires family support. Again, driving our vehicle to her home is the only way to do that. Our shopping trips are half an hour's drive. There are no other stores closer. Medical or business trips to Brandon or Winnipeg can be accomplished only by driving. The trains and buses that were once an option are no longer there.Simply put, driving less is not an option. We don’t burn gas for pleasure. We simply drive when we have to. Our rebate is a small fraction of our driving costs.Similarly, my daughter and her family are farmers. To get their children back and forth to all of their town activities using their four-wheel drive vehicle is the only way that works. Their four children are in all of the usual sports and other activities that modern families engage in. My son-in-law’s farm machinery uses gasoline and diesel. There is no such thing as an electric tractor or combine. The driving they do to run their farm and see to their family needs is all necessary, and it all depends on fossil fuel. Their rebate is also tiny compared to their actual driving costs.Many of my relatives are rural residents, and live similar lives. So do my neighbours. Some are low income. These people are already being hurt by the high costs of fuel, and the escalating carbon tax is seriously eroding their ability to live their lives in reasonable comfort. Rebates are a fraction of their actual fuel expenditures. Every trip to the gas station fills them with a sick feeling. Steadily increasing costs are making rural living more and more difficult. Few could afford electric vehicles, even if they were practical away from the city. Instead, many can afford to drive exactly the big older vehicles that consume the most fuel, and further reduce any rebate they might receive. (It is not lost on the rural people driving older trucks that their tax dollars are helping privileged city dwellers buy heavily subsidized electric vehicles as second or third vehicles.)This is not to say that carbon taxes do not affect urban dwellers. They do. But at least city residents have some public transportation options. For some, walking or cycling to work might be possible. Perhaps rebates work for some. But those options are much more limited in rural areas. The federal government knows this. They don’t care.Knowing that the carbon tax will rise even higher on April 1, 2024, some of us are beginning to ask: “Why are we doing this?” Why are we sacrificing our rural way of life by dancing to an ideological government’s tune? We see leaders who are flying off on private jets every day of the week, and yet many are having increasing difficulty just visiting family members and operating farms. What’s going on?If this escalating carbon tax was actually saving the planet perhaps we’d feel differently. But we know that is not the case. Not only do we see the people who are telling us not to drive our pickup trucks jetting off regularly to climate festivals, we know that since the Liberals came to power Canada’s international coal exports have gone up 300%. So, the same people who have declared war on our own oil and gas industries are responsible for countries like China opening new coal electric plants every week of the year. Canada could have been selling our far cleaner natural gas to countries that burn the dirtier coal that we sell to them. This makes no sense — our leaders are not telling us the truth. Canadians see this for what it is: virtue-signalling hypocrisy.Canadians also know that despite all of the Trudeau Liberals’ sanctimonious climate posturing, and attacks on our own oil and gas industry, emissions have actually risen since the Liberals took power. Canadians also see in real time the hypocrisy of a prime minister scolding the premiers who want a halt in the tax increase for “not doing the right thing” or for being “short-term thinkers” while granting the maritimes an exemption on the tax — for the sole purpose of preserving his own electoral prospects. He is all but saying: “Staying in power is what this is really about — climate concerns be damned”. Canadians see that.Seven of our premiers are now demanding a halt to the April 1 carbon tax increase. Rural Canadians should all support our premiers in this campaign. (I am ashamed that our Manitoba premier — Wab Kinew — is too afraid of losing “free money” from Ottawa to be one of them.)Here’s a letter I will write to the Prime Minister in this regard:“Mr. Trudeau, I strongly object to this ideologically-motivated and pointless tax. I will work hard to find ways of avoiding it — and work hard to convince my fellow citizens to do the same. Our premiers are right to demand a moratorium on a tax increase that is doing great damage. You pretend that this tax will somehow save the environment, while you and your associates jet around the planet to climate parties and tropical vacations. You pretend your tax is “lowering emissions” while under your administration Canada’s coal exports internationally have risen threefold. You and Mr. Guilbeault are free to demonstrate your commitment to lower admissions by personal example — a ban on all but absolutely essential plane travel for you, your cabinet, caucus and bureaucracy would be one sign of sincerity — but don’t use rural residents as punching bags to satisfy your ideological fetishes.”My letter will not be answered, but if enough Canadians take similar action, and refuse to submit to an unfair tax this federal government, which is increasingly being seen as an illegitimate government, will be forced to call an election. We should remember that a refusal to submit to an unfair tax - whether it be tea dumped into Boston Harbour long ago, or in Scott Moe’s decision to defy an arrogant federal government in Saskatchewan today, has the power to bring authoritarians to heel.And it is not hyperbole to say that the current Trudeau government is increasingly being seen as an illegitimate government. It is being seen that way because it does not have the support of a majority of Canadians. It is only kept in power by one unremarkable man — Jagmeet Singh — who might simply be hanging on until 2025 to get his pension. (The fake Pharmacare Bill is strong evidence of that.) Premiers are simply not doing what the PM says they must do, and increasingly ordinary Canadians are determined not to obey as well. Only an election can resolve what is beginning to look a lot like anarchy.A final question that could be asked: Is this Trudeau Liberal refusal to acknowledge the legitimate needs of ordinary Canadians some sort of “Let them eat cake” lack of awareness on their part, or is there something worse going on? Is the PM deliberately trying to sow division, as he did when he imposed vaccine mandates, froze bank accounts and jailed dissenters during the convoy protest for his own electoral purposes? Is he deliberately trying to set one part of the population against the other, as he did then?The answer is not clear. What is clear is that many Canadians are just barely getting by. The pointless carbon tax increases come not just as a slap in the face, but for some a breaking point. This smug government is hurting ordinary Canadians — and they don’t seem to care.We should support the seven premiers, who clearly see what is going on, and are prepared to have a showdown at high noon with a prime minister who places his own ideological fetishes ahead of the needs of ordinary Canadians.Brian Giesbrecht is a retired judge, living in the deep wilds of Manitoba

GIESBRECHT: Carbon tax will bleed you dry if you live out of town

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