The Conservatives have tabled a motion in the House of Commons that represents another bad decision for the environment. In fact, Justin Trudeau’s Liberals have backed down, but only for the Maritimes, on applying the carbon tax to home heating. In doing so, the Liberals are promoting the longer use of heating oil, whose effects on climate change are known.
The Conservatives saw the opportunity and took advantage of the Liberals’ ineptitude and even injustice to call for the elimination of the same tax on other forms of heating that emit greenhouse gases. To achieve maximum impact, they have introduced a motion that must be voted on by each of the elected representatives in the House of Representatives. They did so with even greater glee because a Liberal minister had foolishly linked this decision to naval support for the Liberals.
This approach is inherently bad for the environment. The conservatives don’t care. They claim to recognize the existence of climate change, but reject any measures to curb climate change. They also mock the terrible impact of climate change on the economy and the enormous costs it will incur as long as the oil companies get rich. For this reason alone, the Bloc Québécois will vote against this conservative proposal.
And surprise! The New Democrats are suddenly less sure of both their alliance with the downhill Liberals and their own environmental beliefs: They will vote with the Conservatives! The Conservatives are just waiting to denounce the Bloc Québécois for voting for one federal and Liberal tax, if not, they would say, two. And they are completely wrong.
There is no federal carbon tax or pricing in Quebec. As for the carbon tax, strictly speaking, it does not apply to Quebec, which instead shares with California an emissions cap-and-trade system, a carbon swap that has been in effect since 2013 with no negative impacts. It was initiated by Jean Charest and completed when I was Minister of the Environment. The so-called “second carbon tax” is the Clean Fuels Regulation, which has not been the subject of a vote in Parliament, which cannot be repealed by a motion in Parliament, and which has no effect in Quebec of its own regulations to reduce the Fuel emissions. Worse, the Conservatives are now tempted to interfere in another Quebec jurisdiction by attacking the carbon exchange, a widely acknowledged Quebec success.
So because it is bad for the environment, because there is no such tax in Quebec and because it shows the true nature of the Conservatives, the Bloc Québécois will clearly vote against their motion.
Yves-François Blanchet, Leader of the Bloc Québécois