The Liberals are keeping their analysis of the carbon tax’s economic impact under lock and key, as the Parliamentary Budget Officer confirmed on Monday that the feds had put him under a gag order.
Yves Giroux said while testifying before the House of Commons finance committee that the federal government has put a gag on him, preventing him from sharing an economic analysis of the carbon tax.
“The government has economic analysis on the impact of the carbon tax itself and the (Output-Based Pricing System). We’ve seen that, staff in my office, but we’ve been told explicitly not to disclose it and reference it,” said Giroux.
Giroux filed an access to information request with Environment and Climate Change Canada to determine the economic impacts of emissions reductions. The government published these data in late March or early April, according to Chris Matier, a director in the Parliamentary Budget Office.
“They provided us with their estimated and real GDP on labour income, on capital income, and they indicated on the response form that these were confidential and that we could not disclose,” said Matier.
True North submitted similar ATIPs in March and April and is awaiting a response.
The Parliamentary Budget Officer’s report showed that in 2024, the average Alberta family would lose $911, even after factoring in rebates. The average in every province analyzed results in a loss.
Despite this report, the Liberals have repeated in the House of Commons the line that eight out of ten families receive more in rebates than they pay in carbon taxes.
A Conservative member of Parliament’s post to X featuring a small section of Giroux’s confessions has received almost 300,000 views in the 24 hours it’s been online. Many reactions point to the fact that Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is silencing independent officers of parliament from revealing that the carbon tax costs Canadians.
“Trudeau didn’t like that the parliamentary budget watchdog found that his carbon tax costs Canadians more, so he censored him,” said Conservative spokesperson Sarah Fischer.
Giroux said that he will release a new report in the fall. However, he said the results will be similar, considering that most industrial pricing is exempt from the carbon tax.
Despite the criticism, Giroux said that the report the federal government has prohibited him from discussing confirms the numbers in his report.
“That’s why I’m comfortable with what we have already published,” he said.
Even if the carbon tax helped the environment, for which no supporting data or research exists, Canadians have previously said that the cost of living outweighs climate change concerns.
70% of Canadians and premiers have previously called for carbon tax relief. The call fell on deaf ears, as Trudeau rejected the request from premiers for an emergency meeting to discuss the carbon tax.
Provinces that have been able to scrap the carbon tax, such as Saskatchewan and Manitoba, have seen inflation fall quicker than anticipated.Despite Canada’s continuously rising carbon tax, the country will still fail to meet its climate targets.