Alberta Premier Calls for Ottawa to Suspend ‘Reckless’ Carbon Tax Increase During Parliamentary Committee Testimony

Alberta Premier Danielle Smith in a file photo. (The Canadian Press/Todd Korol)

Appearing before a parliamentary committee, Alberta Premier Danielle Smith called for the federal government to suspend the April 1 carbon tax increase, calling it a “reckless” policy that is creating a crisis of Canadian unity.

“Albertans and all Canadians need common sense compassion and responsible government to prevail. So I’m urging you today to heed the calls of Canadians across the country and suspend the increase in the carbon tax on April 1,” Ms. Smith said in her opening remarks to the Committee on Government Operations and Estimates on March 28.

“This isn’t just reckless. It’s immoral and it’s inhumane, and the added pressure will ruin countless lives, futures, and dreams.”

Ms. Smith was the third premier to speak against the carbon tax in front of the committee this week, with New Brunswick Premier Blaine Higgs and Saskatchewan Premier Scott Moe also appearing to speak against the tax. Nova Scotia Premier Tim Houston was also invited to testify.

The premiers had initially asked to appear before the Finance Committee, but the Liberal chair of the committee wouldn’t recall MPs to hear them. Instead, the chair of the Government Operations committee, Conservatives MP Kelly McCauley, agreed to hold a meeting for the premiers to testify.

On April 1, the federal carbon tax is set to rise from $65 per tonne of greenhouse gas emissions to $80 per tonne, eventually increasing to $170 per tonne in 2030. Premiers from seven provinces recently wrote a letter to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau calling for an end to the tax, and Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre has repeatedly introduced motions to get rid of the tax.

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Ms. Smith said Alberta industries are already making strides to reduce emissions through new technologies and investments, while the federal carbon tax is merely increasing costs. Parliamentary Budget Officer Yves Jiroux has said that the carbon tax will lead to lower employment and lower returns on investments, while also negatively impacting certain economic sectors.

The Alberta premier also called for the federal government to extend its three-year carbon tax exemption to all forms of home heating, and not just its home heating oil exemption announced in October 2023, which primarily applied to Atlantic Canadians.

“If you want to apply the carbon tax, it has to be applied equally, across the country in all provinces for all types of fuel. And if you’re not going to apply it that way, then you need to give a reprieve across the country so that everybody is treated fairly,” Ms. Smith said.

“I think it’s creating a national unity crisis.”

Arsons in Alberta

During Ms. Smith’s committee appearance, Liberal MP Irek Kusmierczyk asked her about the record number of wildfires Alberta faced in 2023, which burned 2.2 million hectares of land and caused 299 days of wildfire smoke choking the city of Edmonton. “Can you tell us whether climate change caused these wildfires and these smoke days?” he asked.

Ms. Smith responded that 60 percent of the fires were caused by human activity, and the government of Alberta was launching a public campaign to raise awareness about the issue.

Mr. Kusmierczyk pointed out that according to the province’s own data, of the 2.2 million acres of land burned in Alberta in 2023, only 0.1 percent of that was caused by human activity. He asked what the province was doing to fight climate change, but the timer ran out before Ms. Smith could answer.

2023 was a record year for wildfires across Canada, with 16.5 million hectares of land burning up compared to an average of 2.5 million, according to Natural Resources Canada. Environment Minister Steven Guilbeault and Prime Minister Trudeau both claimed the increase in wildfires was the result of climate change.

According to the Alberta RCMP, 13 arson-related charges have been laid following investigations by the RCMP Forestry Crimes Unit and Alberta RCMP. It told The Epoch Times that two larger-scale investigations from 2023 are being reviewed by the Crown.

Back in June 2023, Ms. Smith said her government would bring in outside arson investigators to investigate a string of wildfires that had no known cause, saying she was “very concerned that there are arsonists.”

Some experts have pointed to poor forest management practices in recent years having exacerbated wildfires. In a previous interview, Matthew Wielicki, a former assistant professor in the Department of Geological Sciences at the University of Alabama, said that fire suppression techniques in Canada and the United States have inadvertently caused the buildup of flammable underbrush in forests.

“When you have a couple of dry years, that becomes tinder. When you get a fire it will start to spread much more rapidly than it would naturally, and it can burn more intensely. And so we’ve actually seen fires that will kill a forest, when normally [only] the underbrush burns and the trees survive,” he said.