MPP Graydon Smith explains the many negative impacts of the federal carbon tax

Graydon Smith, Parry Sound-Muskoka MPP and provincial Minister of Natural Resources and Forestry, was fired up yesterday at Queen’s Park when asked about the impacts of the carbon tax on the forestry industry.

He explained that it has a negative impact and used a letter from the President of the Ontario Forestry Association to cement his points.

“The next federal increase of the carbon tax will have significantly damaging impacts on our sector,” Smith read from the letter. “Fuel costs impact every stage of the supply chain within the economy and have compounding negative effects on (the) industry.”

Smith pointed out that the carbon tax on fuel is being added every step of the way: the contractors driving to the forest to work, the equipment used to take down a tree, the trucks that are used to take logs out of the forest, during the milling process, and getting the lumber to market.

The Conservative-led Ontario provincial government is calling for an end to the carbon tax, and they’re not alone. A couple of days ago, Saskatchewan leaders threatened to stop collecting the carbon tax for PM Justin Trudeau and his federal Liberal government if an exemption for natural gas wasn’t made.

Canada’s federal carbon tax began with a minimum charge of $20 per tonne of CO2 equivalent in 2019 for consumers. It is up to $65 per tonne now and continues to increase by $15 annually until it reaches $170 in 2030. 

That means steady increases at the pump for all Canadians, but it’s especially costly for businesses who need fuel to build and transport items. Those fuel costs are then built into the wholesale and retail prices which now means consumers are getting dinged by the carbon tax from every angle.

When factoring in the taxes that are placed on fuel after the carbon tax is added, the federal government is charging Canadians $429 million more this year in GST because of this tax-on-tax.

With all things considered, Smith was adamant: “This tax has got to go, it’s in the cost of every new home in Ontario.”

When asked for further comments on the impacts, Smith explains that the carbon tax has a negative financial impact on everything being built: it is attached to aggregates, building health care facilities, schools, homes and other housing, roads, and more.

“The resources we need to build Ontario are subject to a carbon tax,” said Smith with aplomb. “We need to scrap it. The members opposite know it.”