Carney cuts carbon tax to zero, neutralizing it before campaign

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Ottawa – Prime Minister Mark Carney lowered the price of consumer carbon tax rates to zero in a scan of a Sharpie, meaning Canadians will no longer pay fuel. In doing so, he also centered a liberal’s most unpopular policy and a fair election call.

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Carney invited the camera into the cabinet room on Parliament Hill on Friday afternoon and watched him sign a document to zero the tax rate.

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This gesture is far from how Canadian leaders used to do business and is reminiscent of the scenes that Canadians are most accustomed to, as U.S. President Donald Trump often invites the media to enter the Oval Office and watches him sign the execution order.

But, given his private business experience and time as the governor of central banks in Canada and England, sitting around the board is a setting Carney is used to.

So, as the cabinet ministers looked, Carney made some brief statements and then opened a red folder placed in front of him.

“We have made a big decision because it’s a cabinet focused on action, and it’s focused on getting more money in the pockets of Canadians, and it’s focused on building that economy,” he said while sitting at the cabinet dining table.

“Based on the discussions we have conducted and with the commitments I have made and other commitments that have been supported in the (freedom) leadership movement, we will immediately eliminate the Canadian fuel charges, the cost of consumer fuel.”

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Canadians who are about to send out their carbon tax discounts next month should still expect a carbon tax discount, meaning checks may arrive at election events, and Carney will be widely called in the next two weeks.

“This will make a difference for Canadians in tough Canadians, but it is part of the bigger steps the government has taken to ensure we fight climate change, make our companies competitive and the country continues to move forward,” Carney said.

Technically, Carney eliminated consumer carbon tax through regulations and scaled the price to zero.

Carney’s plan to cancel taxes after becoming Canada’s 24th Prime Minister earlier Friday.

Good at hitting opposition conservative leader Pierre Poilievre, who has spent the past two years multinational corporations, using “axe tax” as a promise, accusing “tax” and at higher costs for food and the fees paid by Canadians.

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Thousands of conservative supporters and other Canadians crowded the chamber to rally around the promise, he told right-wing writer and commentator Jordan Peterson in January that it was “iconic.”

However, in recent weeks, Prival has been forced to take his message from the call for a “carbon tax election” given Canadians’ growing concern about U.S. President Donald Trump and his trade war with Canada, as well as ongoing comments on annexation.

Carney has cast himself on Canadians, with the most economic and management experience Trump needs as a leader.

He said he was willing to seek the mission rather than return to Parliament, which is scheduled to resume on March 24.

Official resignation Friday led by former Prime Minister Justin Trudeau – liberals dismissed Poilievre’s criticism as it exaggerated Canadians’ anxiety about the cost of living, which soared as inflation rates raged in the 199 pandemic.

Carney, a free MP who was promoted to the cabinet and appointed as agriculture minister, told reporters that despite Canadians receiving quarterly kickbacks, the upgraded taxes have become a “very split policy.”

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Part of the reason, he said, is Poilievre.

“This government made a decision,” Blois said. “We are moving forward. We have other ways we can continue to fight against climate change. I think it’s the right decision.”

As a liberal from the Atlantic Canada, Blois is one of Trudeau’s voices who heard residents’ concerns about the cost of consumption carbon tax, which increased from $20 per ton in 2019 to $80 in 2024.

In 2023, Trudeau tried to resolve some of these complaints by announcing a family that uses home heating oil, and that’s the case for many families in the Atlantic Ocean in Canada.

“The best barrier to the worst tax ever.” Ontario Prime Minister Doug Ford took place on the X on Friday after Carney’s announcement.

As the leadership contest to replace Trudeau began, it was clear that the policy was almost doomed.

Carney, who positioned himself as a political outsider, promised to pay for Canadian consumer taxes, such as gasoline and heating fuel, said it became too “divisible”. Transport Minister Chrystia Freeland vowed to be Carney, who was far away.

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Carney has pledged to force industrial launchers to pay more and set up incentives to help Canadians reduce their emissions.

Before Carney signed Friday’s order, Poilievre mocked the new prime minister’s gesture, saying the Liberal Party’s legislation on carbon tax has remained on books.

“The carbon tax law will become the law of land until it is recalled to Parliament.”

Poilievre said Carney’s promise was nothing more than trying to “hide” the policy from voters on the eve of the election, and before joining politics, Carney publicly endorsed the carbon tax.

“The reality is that Mr. Carney likes the carbon tax and if you elect him you will pay a cruel price.”

Liberals have used the Greenhouse Gas Pollution Pricing Act as a landmark policy on Trudeau’s climate agenda during the government’s first deadline.

Canada’s Supreme Court maintained its constitutionality in 2021 after challenges in provinces such as Saskatchewan and Alberta.

Many economists use this measure as the most effective way to reduce carbon emissions. Critics, including advocates for climate change and external policy makers, said liberals failed to correctly interpret the ideas behind carbon pricing and deviated from their purpose and stratified other emission restrictions.

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