‘Suck it up’
Dear Editor:
What’s with the Advertiser’s editorial cartoon on April 6 showing Prime Minister Justin Trudeau ordering finance minister Chrystia Freeland to turn the screws on Canadian consumers with its annual increase in the “carbon tax” on fossil fuels?
What the cartoon totally – and deliberately – doesn’t say is that the majority of Ontarians actually receive more back in quarterly payments from this federal program than they pay in increased fossil fuel prices at the pump and for home heating.
Everyone in Ontario receives the same benefit, but it is generally wealthier citizens, the ones who drive gas-guzzling SUVs and heat their large homes with fossil fuels who pay more than the quarterly rebate gives back in the Climate Action Incentive Plan.
What’s the point raising gas prices every April? It’s to slowly but surely shift us away from the carbon-based fuels that are cooking the planet, and onto much more climate-friendly alternatives such as heat pumps and electric vehicles.
But back to the Advertiser cartoon and to this question: who will suffer most if we kill the carbon tax, as the federal Conservatives always ridicule it while never, ever referring to the program’s quarterly rebates? Answer: Unless we get off fossil fuels, and very soon, we’re surely turning the screws on our children and grandkids.
They’re the ones who will be living with the horrific consequences of unchecked climate change because we didn’t have the gumption to suck it up and act now – before it’s too late.
Liz Armstrong,
Erin
