Hello there and thank you for visiting this page to learn more about the Canada Carbon Rebate (CCR) and its impact following the April 1st increase in carbon pricing.
Since 2019, every jurisdiction in Canada has been required to have a price on carbon pollution. Some provinces like Quebec and BC, have their own programs and Ontario also had one until the conservative government under Doug Ford cancelled it in 2018 at which point Ontario was then included in the backstop federal pollution pricing program. This federal pollution pricing program has a fuel charge AND a rebate (the Canada Carbon Rebate or CCR) component for consumers and an output based pricing system for industries.
The CCR is designed to ensure that as Canadians help fight pollution by reducing their carbon footprint, they are also receiving a rebate check or deposit every three months to offset the cost of the program. Over 80% of households receive more back in the rebate than they pay through the fuel charge with the rebate especially advantageous for Canadians in the lower four income quintiles. . This system is endorsed by reports from the Parliamentary Budget Officer (PBO) and the Canadian Climate Institute as well as in a letter signed by over 300 renowned experts.
Additionally, climate change-related costs, which will continue to rise if we do not address climate change are often overlooked. Increasing food costs, caused by droughts and floods, the costs of fighting forest fires, and paying for the damage caused by other climate events such as ice storms and floods, paying for additional infrastructure needed to cope with climate events and even increasing home insurance costs – all of these are real costs which Canadians are bearing now and which will increase exponentially if we do not continue to bring our emissions down and protect our green spaces.
With the carbon price rising from $65 per ton to $80 per ton on April 1st, we saw an increase in the fuel charge on gasoline, diesel, propane, and natural gas, designed to reduce demand by providing a price incentive to use less of these polluting fuels. . For example, the carbon price on gasoline has increased by 3.3 cents to 17.6 cents per liter, and on diesel, it has risen by 4.01 cents to 21.39 cents per liter. However, farms are exempt from paying the fuel charge on over 93% of their fuel. And of course, the Canada Carbon Rebate has also increased from X for a family of four in Ontario to Y. (Please fill in numbers) These increases are critical steps in our drive to lower overall emissions, in alignment with our goal of exceeding climate targets and mitigating the severe financial and environmental impacts of climate inaction.
In fact, the recently released National Inventory Report (on greenhouse gas), shows the largest decrease in emissions in 2022, that we have seen in the past 25 years (with the exception of the COVID impacted years). We are on track to reach our 2026 targets and the price on pollution program has been a significant reason for this success. In fact, if we compare what emissions would have been if we had continued Stephen Harpers’ Conservative program from 2015 to 2030 , to what our emissions are forecast to be under this governments plans, we see that emissions will be almost half of what they would have been without our plan to fight Climate change. That shows our plan is working. We need to keep it up to ensure that our children and grandchildren and all future generations have a fighting chance to thrive on this planet we call home.
Sincerely,
MP Leah Taylor Roy's Office
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