72% of Canadians think carbon tax carve-out should cover all home heating fuel: poll

A new poll from Abacus sta shows 72% of Canadians think the three-year carbon tax carve out for home heating oil should be expanded to cover all home heating fuel when you look at the breakdowns from that poll a majority of all main parties want to see future exemptions on

All types of Home Heating fuels like propane and natural gas with conservative supporters most in favor at 85% and liberals they’re also at 62% that’s an interesting number conservative leader Pier PV promised yesterday to ramp up pressure on the government to pass another bill that would give Farmers a tax break Common

Sense conservatives are launching a fullon campaign to push for Liberal Senators to allow the passage of c234 to take the carbon tax off farmers and food who’s winning the political battle over the carbon tax it’s time to bring in the power panel shachi kurl is the president of the Angus Reed

Institute France is a former NDP PMP and political commentator and here with me in studio Stevie O’Brien is a senior adviser at McMillan Vantage and Kate Harrison is vice chair at Suma strategies so Stevie I’m going to start with you interesting numbers this morning from advocus data uh they’re

Finding that 62% of liberal voters at least their respondents to this poll think that the carbon tax pod should be expanded to include all energy sources what do you make of some of this uh some of this numbers that we’re get it’s it’s not surprising that it’s easy to sell a

Tax cut during an affordability crisis um but what I’d say is the heating oil announcement uh a couple weeks ago primarily and most disappointingly was a Communications error and what it’s given it is given the premieres and the opposition another sort of tool to or another you know

Stick to hit the government with this Cry of inequity uh and you know the Govern the federal governments being unfair which in fact isn’t actually true of the 1.2 million houses that have uh that use heating oil 900 uh, are west of Nova Scotia so I really hope the liberal

Uh government pushes back on that Narrative of inequity of course though it’s harder when you have to sort of explain the science behind why Heating Oil and Propane are different versus just putting ax the tax on a bumper sticker yeah I think probably because when the Prime Minister made the

Announcement about the pause he was just surrounded by Atlantic Canadian MP so it sort of signaled from the get-go that maybe this was an announcement that would benefit just that region but as you rightly point out there are people across the country who use home heating oil it’s a small percentage in provinces

Like Ontario and Quebec but a small percentage of a much larger population right and so people will be able to benefit from this but what do you think Kate that this where do you think this goes because it does seem like it’s really difficult to keep pressing on

With a policy that voters perceive to be unfair whether it is unfair or not there is obviously a lot of support in this poll and others for there to be an expansion of the carpent tax an expansion of the pause that was put in place do you think that that’s something

We’ll see from this government do you think they’re willing to walk back kind of a signature policy that they’ve been championing for the last eight years I I don’t and to your point it’s because it’s a signature policy that we probably won’t see that window expand I think if

You were to ask Abacus data you know open-ended um to Canadians what do they uh view as this government’s major Hallmark policies I think one would be legalizing uh marijuana and I think close behind it would be the climate change uh agenda and progress on environmental issues an issue which uh

The Liberals still own in the minds of of Voters so uh to expand this uh carbon tax car out JP would really undermine that Foundation that the Liberals have built on this issue uh and you know to Stevie’s point on execution it it’s failed in a couple of different ways

Certainly they’ve not been able to win the political constituency they were trying to in terms of uh Shoring up more support in Atlantic Canada I think they’ve hurt themselves quite a bit with I’ll say terracotta liberals those that might go back and forth between the

Orange team and the red team uh and all they’ve done is really hand piol have another opportunity um to to lean on the critique of this government that they’re sewing Regional divisions with adoptions of policies like this FR was I mean 62% of liberals want to see an expansion of

The carbon tax pause they want to see it applied to all energy sources they don’t just want on home heating oil and then we also have I want to read you something from Saskatchewan Premier Scott Mo who has a new statement out today he’s really putting pressure on

The Senate to pass another legislation and he says it is unacceptable that the Senate would stand in the way of providing Canadians with a break on grocery costs by blocking this carbon tax exemption which has been approved by the House of Commons he’s talking about some delay tactics that were used by

Some Trudeau appointed senators in the upper house last week kind of Punt debate on this Bill putting it off to another date probably when they return next week but what do you make of this concerted effort clearly Pier POV and his ally in many respects this scatch

And Premier are really trying to ramp up the pressure on the government and trying to poke holes try to make the climate policy of this government into swiss cheese basically well exactly and maybe because the message from the conservative side is easier to understand for the population than the one that the

Government is trying to VY uh a lot of people from the the GetGo don’t get what the carbon tax is all about what it does and then you get a check and uh uh meanwhile our emissions still are not going to reach their targets and and so

On and so forth and then you have Pierre PV who comes up and say uh we’re all hurting everybody’s hurting in Canada it’s going to cost a lot of money to heat ourselves this winter we should cut everything for everybody and the government who like uh Stevie was saying

Uh did a really bad uh job of of communicating what they were trying to do with this so to add the pressure and then it’s on food it’s on Farm uh let’s remove that tax which seems to make sense I mean and poll anybody Shashi will tell us ask anybody on the phone

Would you like to see that tax go and I I’ll raise my hand also I mean everybody will say yes please remove all taxes if we can now how we get the service and how we do this and that that’s another story but it depends what the question

Is so there are in a bad situation especially since the house did adopt c234 and now it’s game menhip being played in uh in in in the Senate so uh they’re just joining in the bandwagon so the the the poor Liberals are cornered in in that and and with a an environment

Minister who said no more or I’m stepping down so that we’ll see if we get we still have the same uh environmental minister in a few weeks yeah environment Minister Steven Gilbo was out today saying that Pier POV and the conservatives are being disingenuous about this bill that is before the

Senate that would exempt uh more fuels from the carbon tax for Farmers alone he says that most fuels that farmers use are already exempt from the carbon tax and that there is a rebate program in place where some farmers can get back some cash um just like consumers do when

We fill up our cars although it is quite onerous for some Farmers not everyone is able to tap into some of these programs and have their fuel sources covered $31,000 for example is a fuel bill for a chicken farmer I was speaking to one person about that for a single year it’s

It’s a huge expense shachi do you think the government is in a bind here like where do they go from here I mean they do want to be the climate Warrior party right and they have been been so steadfast about that for eight years they keep hammering PV

About saying where’s your policy you have nothing to offer on climate we’re facing all these natural disasters and yet you come up with nothing that’s their claim do you think that voters right now are willing to pay a little more to maybe deal with climate change

Or do you think there’s going to be this momentum to try and scrap this policy well it depends on which voters and the extent to which voters understand whether the amount that paying in tax is equal to less than or more than the amount that they’re

Getting back in rebate and you know this poll today really does a very good job of explaining the what okay so what people want or what they’re saying they want is they’d like to see some tax relief too where’s my tax relief and I talked about this in my column uh on

Friday for the Ottawa Citizen talked about it on the house on Saturday morning when the environment Minister was also on saying that he would absolutely not be going anywhere I’m I’m paraphrasing I don’t think he used exactly words but the point is what we need to better understand now is the how

Okay so what is driving those views what is it predicated on and for a party that has liked to Pride itself so much on its climate leadership Stevie talked a little bit about this just a moment ago when she talks about uh the the fact that the roll out was per perhaps not

Well explained franois also talks about the communications Gap here’s where the Liberals have really just failed to do the daily homework you know the old adage is about like make your bed every day or brush your teeth every like do the do the healthy habits here’s where

The Liberals have not over the eight years that they’ve had to do this and Hammer this into the brains of every household taxpayer out there that for those that are getting rebates here’s your money back like we critics hate it and journalists hate it when politicians you know put up those big garish

Billboards and like to really burnish their creds and tell you when they’re giving you a break or giving you a money back or doing something nice for you I remember those those infrastructure spending dollars after the financial crisis in in the mid to late uh 2000s

The the the you know those those a decades where the Harper government had all of those Billboards your tax dollars at work where is like the laminated check and the special glossy insert that comes with that saying look at how much you’re getting back oh and by the way

Aren’t you virtuous you’re helping uh combat climate change you’re helping Bend back emissions this government over the the better part of a decade has taken it for granted that broadly with the exception of some opponents and some absolute haters of this taxation that everybody else got it and understood it

And what they are realizing In This Moment is in the face of a cost of living crisis which is felt so much more individually at the household level people are equating that tax pain with the pain that they are feeling due to higher cost of living and it’s it’s

Never been adequately explained or communicated to them that maybe that’s not the case so we really have to understand what support for this looks like by understanding of who’s getting a rebate and stay tuned for data on that Stevia I want to give you the last word

On this because I feel like we’ve been folks have been beating up on the government here but do you think that there is a chance that the carbon tax just goes away because you know we have the home meeting oil exam there is increasing pressure from the premier to

Do it nationwide on heating oil sources we now have the Senate bill is there a chance they just abandon the carbon tax and maybe just bolster other carbon ta other carbon policies other climate initiatives make maybe just dismantle that and put more money into a more ambitious heat pump program for example

Make other activities that would help us the carbon tax isn’t going anywhere it is a signature piece of policy we’ve discussed that already this evening um I think the next election is probably going to be a climate change focused election what we’re going to see and

Maybe even as early as next week are additional measures that do focus on affordability that focus on housing that focus on those top voter issues that do not necessarily or do not touch carbon uh pricing at all

The Power Panelists weigh in on a new Abacus poll that shows most Canadians want the carbon tax carve-out to cover all home heating fuel.

»»» Subscribe to CBC News to watch more videos:

Connect with CBC News Online:

For breaking news, video, audio and in-depth coverage:
Find CBC News on Facebook:
Follow CBC News on Twitter:
For breaking news on Twitter:
Follow CBC News on Instagram:
Subscribe to CBC News on Snapchat:

Download the CBC News app for iOS:
Download the CBC News app for Android:

»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»
For more than 80 years, CBC News has been the source Canadians turn to, to keep them informed about their communities, their country and their world. Through regional and national programming on multiple platforms, including CBC Television, CBC News Network, CBC Radio, CBCNews.ca, mobile and on-demand, CBC News and its internationally recognized team of award-winning journalists deliver the breaking stories, the issues, the analyses and the personalities that matter to Canadians.

Reference