NDP to back Conservative motion calling for carbon tax pause on all home heating fuels
Liberals facing increasing political pressure to extend carbon tax holiday to other fuels
New Democrats are planning to vote in favour of a Conservative motion to exempt all home heating fuels from the federal carbon tax.
"The panicked reaction of Liberals a few days ago, it seemed to be tied to electoral chances more than anything else," the party's House leader Peter Julian said Thursday.
The Liberals have been facing increasing political pressure to extend a carbon tax exemption to fuels such as natural gas and propane after announcing a three-year exemption for home heating oil last week.
The government has said that the pause is meant to give Canadians who use oil to heat their homes more time to switch to subsidized electric heat pumps.
Julian said that decision provoked "confusion" and "chaos" by pitting one region against another.
While the exemption for home heating oil applies across the country, its effects will be felt most in Atlantic Canada.
In Newfoundland and Labrador, almost one in five households use home heating oil. Two in five Prince Edward Island households and one in three Nova Scotia households are heated with furnace oil. In New Brunswick, one in about every 14 households uses home heating oil.
The text of the motion calls on the Commons to apply the tax break "to all forms of home heating." The House will vote on the non-binding motion on Monday.
Julian said that by supporting the Conservative motion, the NDP is calling on the government to help all Canadians who are struggling with affordability issues.
"This decision has been made. It's a bad one. How do we then make it equitable so that everybody can afford to heat their homes this winter?" Julian said, adding that the NDP plans to push the government further on climate action in other ways.
Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre has accused the Liberals of creating "two classes" of Canadians by exempting home heating oil and not other fuels.
Poilievre said Wednesday that it's a compromise meant to allow Canadians to vote on the issue in the next election.
Earlier this week, Poilievre said Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has turned the carbon tax into "the issue of the next election." During Thursday's question period, he pushed Trudeau to make the motion a confidence vote.
"Will [Trudeau] confirm whether or not he considers my motion … a confidence vote?" Poilievre asked.
The NDP has an agreement to support the Liberals on confidence votes in exchange for a commitment to act on key NDP priorities. That agreement is set to remain in place until 2025.
Julian insisted the motion won't be a confidence vote and said he wasn't concerned about being aligned with the Conservatives on this issue.
"The motion is about affordability," he said. "[It's] for once not a crazy climate denying motion, it just refers to equity."
NDP calls for removal of GST on home heating
The NDP has been calling on the government to remove the GST from home heating fuels.
The federal carbon tax applies in provinces and territories that don't have carbon pricing systems that Ottawa considers sufficient to lower greenhouse gas emissions.
Julian said removing the GST from home heating fuels would be a more "equitable" solution because it would give Canadians a break in provinces like Quebec and B.C., where the federal carbon levy doesn't apply. He criticized the Conservatives for not playing ball and tagging the GST onto their motion.
"We continue to be the adults in the room," he said.
Last week, Saskatchewan Premier Scott Moe and Alberta Premier Danielle Smith called on Ottawa to apply the same exemption to natural gas, which is used by a majority of residents in their provinces for heating.
On Monday, Moe upped the ante by declaring that SaskEnergy — the provincial Crown corporation responsible for natural gas distribution — wouldn't collect the carbon tax starting in January if an exemption wasn't extended to other heating fuels.
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With files from The Canadian Press