Commentary
The affordability crisis is taking its toll on Canadians. Their money problems, as a new poll tells us, are getting so bad that they’re having trouble sleeping and it’s hurting their personal relationships.
This is why it’s welcome news that the federal carbon tax, which raises the cost on pretty much all consumer products, may finally be on its way out. Anything the government can do to make life easier, they absolutely must. It’s a moral imperative at this point. And anything they’re currently doing that is driving up the price of goods—like the carbon tax—is just plain wrong.
Nobody in this country needs a study to tell them that life is becoming less affordable. But the latest RBC Canadian Financial Wellbeing Survey helps quantify just how dire the situation has become.
The latest edition of this annual report finds that 40 percent of all Canadian adults report difficulty sleeping because they’re up at night stressing about money. Gen Y (Millennials) are in the worst spot, with 53 percent reporting sleeping problems. No wonder. This is the generation of adults that have small kids at home. They’re also likely stressing about finding housing that’s affordable for them.
Meanwhile, 43 percent of all adults report having “a significant amount of stress” in their personal relationships related to their finances. Again, millennials are higher than the average at 59 percent.
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It should have been these sorts of numbers that are what led Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to finally give in and ease up on the federal carbon tax.
On Oct. 26, Trudeau announced that home heating oil will be exempt from the carbon tax for the next three years. Also, rural residents currently receive an extra 10 percent on their carbon tax rebates but that will now go up to 20 percent.
While Trudeau is insistent that the carbon tax will still remain one of his signature policies, this is hopefully the beginning of the end for the controversial tax. That it can be removed from one product means it can be removed from others, which means it can be removed from all.
The mask is now off and the arbitrariness of the carbon tax has been exposed on multiple fronts. This undermines Trudeau’s questionable insistence that the tax actually leaves people better off. If they truly believe that the tax—via its rebate—puts more money in peoples’ pockets, it wouldn’t make sense to repeal any of it. Instead, they’re admitting it does make people worse off.
What’s concerning though is that Trudeau doesn’t appear to have made this decision for the good of the people, but for strategic political reasons.
Politicians in Atlantic Canada—where residents rely on oil for home heating more than people in other parts of the country—have been pushing for action on this front for a while. And many of them are Liberals, like Newfoundland Premier Andrew Furey (no relation) and Liberal MP Ken McDonald.
The Atlantic region has long been a Liberal stronghold, so Trudeau clearly needed to act to shore up the base. Trudeau made his announcement standing with members of his Atlantic caucus. But here’s the thing: Atlantic leaders have already responded to this latest news to say the PM needs to do even more to roll back the tax.
Meanwhile, Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre smelled weakness and went on the offensive right after Trudeau’s announcement. “What caused Justin Trudeau to freak out yesterday and hold a sudden press conference to announce that he was going to pause the carbon tax on home heating oil? The answer is that he was plummeting in the polls,” Poilievre said, speaking in St. John’s. “Justin Trudeau is not worried about the cost of living. He is worried about the cost of votes and that’s what caused his panicked flip-flop yesterday.”
Poilievre is surely right. But it’s not like this minor tweak will be enough to turn Trudeau’s political prospects around. And, with interest rates still high, affordability woes aren’t going away anytime soon.
We should expect Trudeau to make more concessions in the future, both with the carbon tax and other measures.
Views expressed in this article are opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.
