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Editorial: Federal carbon tax shown to be a cash grab

The federal carbon tax is nothing more than a tax grab by the Liberals, and will hurt the economy with a return to inflation due to higher costs, says Weyburn Review editor Greg Nikkel.

If there is any doubt that the federal carbon tax is nothing more than a cash grab, with no other purpose but to fill Liberal coffers, those doubts were put to rest this past week as Prime Minister Justin Trudeau ignored the wishes of the vast majority of Canadians, and Canadian leaders, to stubbornly press on for the huge increase on April 1.

Any and all polls on the issue show a large majority of Canadians oppose any further increase, and on top of that, 70 per cent of premiers across Canada, including Saskatchewan, even including the largest province in the country, oppose the coming increase, and in total futility asked Trudeau to cancel the increase set for April Fool’s Day.

It has long since been proven that there is no benefit to the environment, which was the supposed intent of the carbon tax.

Anyone not a Liberal understood from the start the tax was simply a pretext to suck more dollars out of hard-working Canadians, and it has been proven over time as the tax simply keeps growing and growing.

It was absolutely galling that even during COVID, when any politician with a conscience would not have increased a tax at a time of extreme economic pressure, but the Liberals put the increase through then.

Even now, Trudeau has the audacity to say that carbon tax rebates mean Canadians are not hurt by the tax, leaving out the fact this regressive tax costs Canadians, and the economy far, far more than is covered by any rebates.

The latest scenario had the Liberals unfairly give a break to Atlantic Canadians, as they actually acknowledge the tax was increasing costs to them – but then when other provinces wanted equal treatment, it was refused. Saskatchewan’s answer was to refuse to remit the taxes on home heating costs, including on natural gas, and in response, the government is threatening to cut off rebate cheques for everyone in Saskatchewan.

The effect of this will only rub salt into the wounds, as the tax is already hurting residents here, and after April 1, it will hurt exponentially more with absolutely no relief from the federal government as the tax jumps from $65 a tonne to $80 a tonne, about a 25 per cent hike.

When the vast majority of premiers, not to mention residents, are asking for the increase not to be placed on them on April 1st, and the request is denied, it only shows the true Liberal heart, to suck money out of the West, to hurt the West, and show absolutely no remorse for it.

In addition, the pressures of inflation have finally been cooling off, but this increase across the board is just going to continue to add to inflation, as costs are passed down to the hard-working Canadians that Trudeau pretends to be in support of. 

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