Gage Haubrich is the Prairie Director for the Canadian Taxpayers Federation.From Swift Current to Melville to La Ronge and everywhere in between, Saskatchewanians want the province to stay carbon tax-free.New polling from Insightrix shows that 69% of Saskatchewanians support Premier Scott Moe cancelling the provincial government’s industrial carbon tax. That’s a level of support usually reserved for the Roughriders in this province. And it’s a level of support that transcends partisan politics. Moe’s Saskatchewan Party garnered about 52% of the vote in the last provincial election. The support for cancelling the industrial carbon tax is 17% higher than that..GOLDBERG: Carney must be prepared to listen to changes the US wants ahead of CUSMA talks .The numbers are clear: Moe needs to do everything he can to keep Saskatchewan carbon tax-free. It’s what Saskatchewanians want, it makes life more affordable, and it helps grow the economy.Moe cancelled Saskatchewan’s hidden industrial carbon tax on April 1, 2025. That made Saskatchewan Canada’s first, and only, carbon tax-free jurisdiction..“We are leading again as the first province in Canada to remove the industrial carbon tax on electricity generation, delivering further savings for Saskatchewan families, businesses, and industries on their SaskPower bills,” said Minister of Crown Investments Corporation Jeremy Harrison.“What we are doing as a province is taking very decisive steps to ensure that our industries in Saskatchewan are more competitive and to protect the jobs today in those industries and protect the jobs that we want to attract in those industries into the future,” said Moe.Scrapping the industrial carbon tax is saving the average Saskatchewan family about $112 per year on their power bills, according to SaskPower. Farms will save about $330 per year..GIESBRECHT: 2026 is the ‘Year of the Fire Horse’.Those savings are important for Saskatchewanians trying to make ends meet as surveys show that the cost of living is the biggest issue facing families in the province.But taxpayers are saving without the carbon tax even if they didn’t see a direct bill for it on their receipts. That’s because when governments force businesses to pay the tax, they have no choice but to pass those costs on to ordinary Canadians when they buy their products.Carbon taxes on refineries that make gas more expensive, carbon taxes on utilities make home heating more expensive, and carbon taxes on fertilizer plants increase costs for Saskatchewan farmers..Industrial carbon taxes also cost Saskatchewan jobs.Companies that can’t afford to pay the costs of an industrial carbon tax can just pack up and shift production south to the United States, where they don’t have to pay the tax and take all their jobs with them.Moe did the right thing when he scrapped Saskatchewan’s industrial carbon tax. What Moe can’t do now is fall prey to Prime Minister Mark Carney’s pressure to make a deal that would slap an expensive industrial carbon tax back on Saskatchewanians. That’s because Ottawa continues to put pressure on provinces to impose an industrial carbon tax..DEW: BC Conservatives' next leader must build, not burn.A recent memorandum of understanding between the federal and Alberta governments includes an industrial carbon tax increase in Alberta in exchange for the federal government supporting a future pipeline. “It means more than a six times increase in the industrial price on carbon,” Carney said..It’s likely the federal government is pressuring the government of Saskatchewan with a similar deal. But Moe must stand strong and continue to say no to Ottawa imposing a hidden industrial carbon tax in the province.Saskatchewanians can’t afford to pay any level of carbon tax, no matter what kind of political goodies Ottawa offers up in exchange..GWYN MORGAN: End supply management — for the sake of Canadian consumers.The Saskatchewan government has been fighting the carbon tax since the beginning. That fight got the consumer carbon tax scrapped, saving Saskatchewanians hundreds of dollars per year. The same can happen with the hidden industrial carbon tax. Moe can’t give up now. Saskatchewanians want to stay carbon tax-free. Moe needs to make sure that happens.Gage Haubrich is the Prairie Director for the Canadian Taxpayers Federation.
