Manitoba joins carbon tax exemption fray, seeks 'greater fairness' from Ottawa
New finance minister pledges talks with Ottawa to achieve affordability measures offered to Atlantic Canada
Manitoba's new NDP finance minister is looking for "greater fairness" in the application of the federal carbon tax — but promises to work collaboratively with Justin Trudeau's Liberal government to make that happen.
Finance Minister Adrien Sala says he wants to know whether the prime minister will extend the same carbon-tax breaks to Manitobans as he effectively did for residents of Atlantic Canada when he announced a three-year carbon-tax exemption on home heating oil.
Last week, Saskatchewan Premier Scott Moe and Alberta Premier Danielle Smith called on Ottawa to apply the same exemption to natural gas, 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.
Sala said he wants to have positive talks with Ottawa and pledged not to resume what he called the "posturing" of the former PC government, which threatened another court fight over the carbon tax.
"We're seeing other provinces that are asking for some changes, and we did see that the prime minister committed to some changes in Eastern Canada," Sala said Tuesday in an interview in his office.
"That's definitely of interest to us here in Manitoba. We want to know how that might extend to greater fairness for Manitobans," he said.
"We're going to start by having conversations with the federal government around this question to understand how those types of benefits that are being provided to folks in Eastern Canada might be extended to folks in Manitoba. No idea what that looks like right now, but we want to start from a position of collaboration and co-operation."
Sala pointed to the carbon-tax exemption on heating oil as well as Ottawa's offer to pay for geothermal heating in Eastern Canada as potential benefits.
"Those are good offers that are being made to folks in those provinces to help reduce their cost of living," Sala said.
Katherine Cuplinskas, a spokesperson for federal Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland, said in a statement that the federal government "will continue working to make life more affordable for people in Manitoba."
Earlier, Trudeau said his government will not make any further exemptions to the carbon tax.
"There will absolutely not be any other carve-outs or suspensions of the price on pollution," he told reporters on his way into question period in Ottawa.
Manitoba has a carve-out of its own on the way. Sala said Tuesday his government will begin a promised six-month suspension of its 14-cents-a-litre gasoline tax on Jan. 1.
He and Premier Wab Kinew have characterized this as a temporary affordability measure.
The Manitoba government has also promised to install 5,000 heat pumps in the province during its first term as a means of reducing energy consumption.
Sala said it's too early to say what proportion of those 5,000 will have single-home air-source heat pumps and what proportion will involve neighbourhood-scale geothermal-heating systems.
Kinew said Wednesday that he will pursue federal funding for geothermal heating in particular.
"Now that that's out in public, we very much hope to be able to bring in some benefits here in Manitoba that will help you save money on your home heating bill, create some good jobs in the community and also help to free up some more electricity on the grid," the premier told reporters.
The Progressive Conservative Opposition urged the NDP to take a tougher stance on the carbon tax.
"If Mr. Kinew doesn't take a very strong position with Ottawa — that Manitobans should be treated fairly, like all parts of Canada, and not have to pay the carbon tax on natural gas of heating in their homes — then Trudeau will do nothing," said Kelvin Goertzen, deputy leader for the Progressive Conservatives.
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With files from Darren Major and Ian Froese