The consumer carbon tax is gone, but not everyone on P.E.I. is happy about it

While many Prince Edward Island drivers were happy to get a big break at the gas pumps Tuesday, the federal government's elimination of the consumer carbon tax drew mixed reaction from others.

The minimum price for gasoline in P.E.I. fell by about 20 cents per litre, bringing it down to $1.49, while diesel prices fell about 24 cents to $1.66 per litre.

The decrease is the result of a directive Mark Carney signed last month on his first day as prime minister, ordering that the fuel charge be removed on April 1. The same order means eligible Canadians who've received quarterly carbon rebates in the past can expect just one more cheque, on April 22. 

Former prime minister Justin Trudeau first implemented carbon pricing in 2019. It was designed as a financial incentive for people and businesses to change their behaviour, since they would may more to burn fossil fuel than they would by transitioning to greener forms of energy.

But as inflation rose in the years that followed, federal Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre's pledge to eliminate the tax gained traction among voters.

When a CBC News crew hit the streets of Charlottetown Tuesday, all five people who agreed to give their opinion were in favour of the gas price drop.

Tax called 'slap in the face'

On the business front, carbon pricing has been a "sore spot" for some industries ever since it came into effect, said Andy Keith, the president and CEO of SFX Transport in Charlottetown. 

Fuel is one of the biggest expenses for the long-haul trucking company, said Keith, so adding an extra cost hurt SFX's bottom line. 

"We have no choice but to use our diesel engine equipment at this point. Electric just isn't an option; there's no range, especially for us when we're travelling down to the United States," he said. "It just kind of feels like we were backed into a corner." 

Keith said his company takes care to make its trucks more fuel efficient, and they use auxiliary power units so that drivers can cook and use air conditioning without having to keep their engines idling to do so. 

"We do an awful lot… to try to reduce our carbon footprint," he said. "That's just what we have to continue to do, and that's where the carbon tax was a little bit of a slap to the face." 

'Working and not getting paid'

On the opposite side of the issue is Darcie Lanthier, a longtime P.E.I. environmental advocate, who said dropping the tax means one fewer incentive for people to move away from fossil fuels and toward renewable energy. 

"It's like working and not getting paid at the end of it," she said. "I've done everything I can do, and I'll continue to do as much as possible, but what this does is makes it [difficult] for other people to follow in my footsteps." 

Lanthier said she had already ditched much of her reliance on fossil fuels in favour of greener energy before the carbon tax came into effect. 

She pointed to the recent end of federal electric vehicle rebate and the P.E.I. government pausing its solar energy rebate as further disincentives for people to make the switch. 

We make good policy in the back rooms… and then a few loud people push back and now we don't have good policy anymore.— Darcie Lanthier

She thinks the federal government should have held its ground when it came to keeping its carbon pricing policy. 

"It's like a win-win-win, and the only part that was the fail was the actual program delivery… getting the message out about how it worked and what it was doing," Lanthier said. 

"That's the problem with a lot of policies — we make good policy in the back rooms… and then a few loud people push back and now we don't have good policy anymore."