Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said in Vancouver, B.C., on Thursday that Conservative premiers would rather “complain, attack and mislead Canadians for narrow political gain” because of an “ideological objection” to fighting climate change and “an unwillingness to recognize” that carbon price rebate checks would put more money in people's pockets.
"That's why I called them out. And I'm going to continue to call them out and remind them that if they really don't like our approach to pricing pollution, they can create their own approach," Trudeau said. “They are not telling the truth.” Earlier, a House of Commons committee hearing on carbon pricing was held in Ottawa, which was sparked by the premiers of New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Saskatchewan and Alberta publishing urgent letters requesting to appear before the Liberal-led House Finance Committee to air their concerns about the looming hike.
Over the past number of years, I have sat down with every premier in the country to
talk about everything that we are doing together to fight climate change and everything we
need to continue to do not just to fight climate change, but to put more money in the pockets
of Canadians. Conservative premiers across this country are misleading Canadians, are
not telling the truth. Eight out of ten families across the country in federal backstop jurisdictions
make more money with the Canada carbon rebate than it costs with the price on pollution.
So not only are we fighting climate change and reducing emissions, but we're putting
more money back in the pockets of families, particularly in low- and middle-income families
across the country. It's basic math that the Parliamentary Budget Officer has confirmed
time and time again. But for ideological reasons or reasons of pure partisanship, Conservative
politicians across this country are not telling the truth to Canadians. And that's why I called
them out. And I'm going to continue to call them out and remind them that if they really
don't like our approach to pricing pollution, they can develop their own approach. Here
in B.C., that's what a B.C. more Conservative government did years ago in creating Canada's
first price on pollution. Quebec did the same. Now, we expect everyone to hit a level…
the same level of ambition in the fight against climate change because that's fair and that's
important if we're going to actually make a difference in the extreme weather events
that we're seeing across the country and around the world that are coming. So yes, people
need to fight climate change, but any province that wants to put forward a similarly robust
way to fight climate change but do it in a way that works for them is more than welcome
to and has been from the very beginning of our price on pollution. But Conservative premiers
in general would rather complain and attack and mislead Canadians for narrow political
gain because of both an ideological objection apparently to fighting climate change but
also to an unwillingness to recognize that we are putting more money in people's pockets
with rebate checks that Pierre Paulieff wants to take away from Canadians. And to put an
even clearer point on it, we announced a doubling of the rural top-up that hits millions of
Canadians across the country, and that's being held up in the House of Commons by Pierre
Paulieff and his Conservative party that are preventing that doubling of the rural top-up.
Money in the pockets of Canadian living in rural communities across the country from
having that money to help with the high cost of living on every different level. That's
irresponsible by Conservative premiers, and I'm going to continue to call out all Conservative
politicians who are doing that.
