Debate over carbon pricing and furnace oil heating up as temperatures drop in northern Ontario

The federal Liberal government's decision to drop carbon tax from furnace oil has turned home heating into a hot political topic, including in northern Ontario where thousands are on oil heat. 

Most of them are in rural areas, where there is less access to natural gas, including the small town of St. Charles where Maria Tavares has watched the cost of filling her oil tank double in recent years. 

"It's heat. You have no choice," she said.

"Our biggest costs right now are heat and food. Not something you can avoid."

Tavares says about $100 of the $800 monthly bill is carbon tax and to keep her family of five warm through the winter. She sometimes uses electrical heaters. 

"Still run the oil, just not as high. So if it's really really cold, then we'll sub in the electrical heaters. Still expensive, but not as expensive as the oil," she said. 

Her MP, Nickel Belt Liberal Marc Serré, says his government is targeting heating oil because it's "dirty and it's two to four times more expensive than natural gas."

"We've got to continue to make sure we protect our environment and find ways to make it affordable for people at the same time," he said.

While opposition parties are accusing the Liberals of unfairly helping some Canadians with their bills and not others, Serré says any family of four can receive $1,000 in carbon pricing rebates, plus another 20 per cent in rural areas. And he's also proud of the $10,000 incentives for those switching to heat pumps.

Sudbury-based climate activist Cathy Orlando thinks the government can do a much better job educating people about the carbon price rebates, while at the same time feeling the three-year pause on taxing heating oil is "not the end of the world."

"We need to make polluters pay," she said.

"Fossil fuel companies are making us pay and carbon pricing is a giant leap in the right direction."

Former Conservative leader Andrew Scheer was in northern Ontario last week, knocking on doors to push his party's "Ax the Tax" slogan and pushing back against critics who say they have no climate plan. 

"Justin Trudeau doesn't have an environment plan," he told reporters in Sudbury.

"We have outlined key specifics of our plan that will prioritize investments in technology and not taxes."

The Conservatives are set to table a motion in the House of Commons on Monday calling for all home heating costs to be free from carbon pricing. 

"Time is of the essence," said Scheer. 

"We're hearing more and more reports that people are setting their thermostats to uncomfortable and in some cases, unhealthy levels."

The New Democrats say they'll vote against the government on that motion, but it isn't a confidence vote and isn't even binding, so it won't force the Liberals to change course. 

Algoma-Manitoulin-Kapuskasing NDP MP Carol Hughes thinks it would be better to drop the GST from all home heating and leave carbon pricing alone.

"I think it's a black eye for the Liberals for what they have done. There is so much more we can do to protect the planet. This here is not going to get us to our goal," she said.