Former Conservative leader in the Sault to rally locals against carbon tax

Conservative MP Andrew Scheer is visiting Sault Ste. Marie to voice his party’s opposition to the Liberal government’s plan to increase its carbon tax April 1.

Scheer — MP for Regina-Qu'Appelle — is a former Conservative Party of Canada leader who battled Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s Liberals in the 2019 federal election. He now serves as Opposition House Leader.

Scheer, current Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre and several other Conservative MPs are travelling across Canada in what is billed as a "Spike the Hike" tour. Later this morning, Scheer will be joined by party supporters at a rally outside Sault MP Terry Sheehan’s downtown office.

Poilievre has repeatedly said that if the Conservatives win the next federal election, he will put an end to the carbon tax. "Axe the Tax" has become his battle cry.

The Conservatives say the carbon tax negatively affects all Canadians, raising the cost of fuel for farmers who produce food and the truckers who ship food to grocery stores, who in turn increase their prices for consumers.

“What we’re hoping is that we can raise the awareness of that and have individual residents contact their Members of Parliament to spike the hike and axe the tax,” Scheer said Wednesday night, in a one-on-one interview with SooToday.

“Justin Trudeau has backed down in several other ways on the carbon tax. It’s frustrating that he’s not listening to Canadians who say they want the carbon tax at least paused. Seven out of 10 provincial premiers are making the same call. In a democracy you’re supposed to listen to the people.”

“We’re challenging him that if he’s so sure that Canadians will support his plan to quadruple the carbon tax, then call an election and let people have their say,” Scheer said.

The carbon tax — officially known as the Greenhouse Gas Pollution Pricing Act — came into effect at $20 per tonne in 2019. It has increased since then and is scheduled to rise by 23 per cent from $65 per tonne to $80 per tonne on April 1. 

Each year the tax will go up by $15 per tonne until it reaches $170 per tonne in 2030.

By 2030. the price on carbon would add nearly 40 cents per litre of fuel for Canadian motorists. 

Scheer was asked by SooToday how the Conservatives plan to cut emissions if elected to power.  

“That’s a fair question,” Scheer said.

“Pierre Poilievre has been talking about what Canada can do to reduce emissions by actually increasing exports of clean liquified natural gas. It’s an alternative to coal. Germany has asked for our LNG, Justin Trudeau said no. We could use it ourselves. There are so many communities in Canada that don’t have natural gas in their residential areas. There have also been several green electrical projects the Trudeau government has said no to. There was a project in Atlantic Canada to generate electricity from the tides. There are lots of areas where we can help lower emissions by saying yes to innovation and yes to exciting new projects without taxing Canadians and driving up the cost of groceries.”

He added that nuclear is another clean energy option.

In anticipation of Scheer's visit, Sheehan issued a news release Wednesday, reminding voters that eligible Canadians will receive their first of four quarterly Canada Carbon Rebates for 2024 - 2025 starting on April 15, via direct bank deposit or cheque.

“Sault Ste. Marie and the Algoma District are already receiving the extra rural supplement and will receive the doubling of the supplement. That means a $1,344 Canada Carbon Rebate for a family of four in the local area,” Sheehan stated in a release. 

“The Canada Carbon Rebate returns dollars back to Canadians. Because carbon pricing makes big polluters pay the most, eight out of 10 Canadians get more back than they pay, with lower-income families benefitting the most,” Sheehan said. 

The base amount of the quarterly Canada Carbon Rebates in Ontario is:

• $140 for an individual
• $70 for a spouse or common-law partner
• $35 per child under 19
• $70 for the first child in a single-parent family

The rural supplement is:

• $28 for an individual
• $14 for a spouse or common-law partner
• $7 per child under 19
• $14 for the first child in a single-parent family

“It’s a shell game that Canadians aren’t falling for,” Scheer said in response to the rebates. 

“What the Liberals have done is focus on a narrow set of direct costs associated with the carbon tax. When they designed their rebate that’s all they took into account. What they didn’t take into account is all the tax’s effects on the economy like the farmer who produces the food, the trucker that ships the food, the retailer that sells the food, they all have to pay the carbon tax and that all gets built into the price and it gets passed on to consumers. The rebate doesn’t capture that.”

Scheer said the tax is also scaring away investors who wish to invest and create jobs in Canada. 

Scheer arrived in the Sault Wednesday and greeted local residents by knocking on doors.

“I would say 95 per cent of the people who answered the doors tonight were very much opposed to this carbon tax hike,” he said.

SooToday spoke to Scheer about other issues facing Canadians, including the need for increased housing.

He said a Conservative government would reward municipalities that speed up development of new homes.

“We really have to incentivize municipalities to get new homes on the market, to remove the red tape, to speed up approvals, to streamline application processes with a goal to build. What Pierre Poilievre has talked about is rewarding communities that can show a marked increase in home construction with extra infrastructure dollars, and for those that don’t, they won’t have access to those funds,” Scheer said. 

While health care is very much a provincial responsibility, Scheer was also asked for the Conservative take on fixing the Canada-wide family doctor shortage.

More than 3,000 Group Health Centre patients have already been de-rostered and left without access to a primary care provider. Over 10,000 more Group Health Centre patients face being de-rostered effective May 31.

It is estimated 30,000 Saultites don’t have access to a primary care provider.

Scheer agreed that foreign-trained doctors should be more quickly licensed to practice medicine in Canada.

“Under Justin Trudeau, Canada now spends almost as much in servicing the debt as we do on healthcare. We want to tap into all those people who are working in the service sector that could be family doctors or nurses and quickly recognize their credentials. That’s a big part of it. Getting a grip on the deficit and debt frees money up for things like healthcare and quickly recognizing credentials of new Canadians are two big components of how we’re going to address healthcare.”

As for the opioid crisis facing the Sault and much of the country, Scheer said “we need to focus our efforts on recovery and bringing our loved ones home drug free. You don’t do anybody any favours when you maintain addictions. We need to address the reason why they've turned to drugs and invest in earlier interventions.”

Scheer said the opioid crisis can also be addressed if the courts get tougher on drug dealers.

“What the government’s not doing is going after the bad guys. The government’s actually lowering penalties for repeat dangerous offenders. The people engaged in drug production and transportation are facing lighter sentences, easier bail and house arrest. We’ve called for the government to do more inspections at our ports but that hasn’t happened either.” 

Scheer also criticized the Liberals for their recent introduction of a two-year cap on the number of international students allowed into Canada.

Locally, Sault College and Algoma University rely heavily on international students.

“I would say that the government has acknowledged that they have mismanaged the immigration system. They have allowed the program to expand so quickly and so rapidly without any link to increasing the housing supply to accommodate international students, and now their efforts to undo that damage is having an effect on colleges and universities that have built a big part of their business case on international students. We have to get it right. We have to make sure that housing can meet the needs. The Liberals have expanded one without expanding the other.”     

More details on the Conservative Party’s platform will be released closer to the next federal election campaign, Scheer said.