The Canadian Trucking Alliance is calling for an “end to the carbon tax on diesel” and demanding that the Trudeau government shift its focus onto green solutions proven to work instead of piling extra fees onto families.
The Canadian Trucking Alliance is a vocal supporter of policies which reduce the effects of climate change from all sectors,” reads the CTA statement released last month.
“The trucking industry and its equipment/engine suppliers are investing billions of dollars in various alternative technologies designed to replace the modern diesel engine and reduce our reliance on diesel fuel, which would cut our sector’s carbon footprint. However, despite the best efforts of our sector and equipment suppliers to advance decarbonization efforts, diesel remains the primary available fuel used to power long-haul trucks.“
The CTA said that while this is not by choice, it remains the only reliable option available for this essential industry, which keeps the supply chain in motion.
“CTA is calling on the federal government to suspend the carbon tax for a minimum of four years on diesel fuel. Currently, no wholly viable alternative exists, and the current tax serves no policy purpose in the sector,” reads the release.
Conservative transport critic Phillip Lawrence and Conservative finance critic Jasraj Singh Hallan released a joint statement of their support in response to the CTA’s request, saying that Canadian families are now paying an additional $700 on food this year than they did in 2023 as a direct result of the carbon tax.
According to the CTA, the carbon tax will add just under $2 billion to annual trucking costs across the country and by 2030, will add over $4 billion to total interprovincial trucking costs per year.
Additionally, it will increase the cost of operating a truck in Canada by close to 15% and over its 12-year tax phase in will levy more than $26 billion in additional taxes against the Canadian trucking industry.
As the CTA points out in its release, these added costs “cannot be absorbed and must be passed on to customers because truckers are already facing “razor-thin margins in the trucking industry.”
“Trudeau just doesn’t understand that if you tax the farmer who makes the food and the trucker who ships the food, you end up taxing the Canadian who buys the food,” reads the joint statement from Lawrence and Hallan.
“Despite presiding over a cost of living crisis, Trudeau refuses to cancel his inflationary carbon tax.”
Trudeau increased the carbon tax by 23% on April 1, with plans to quadruple the tax to 61 cents per litre by 2030.
The prime minister did this even though 69% of Canadians wanted Trudeau to cancel his carbon tax increase.
According to a study by the Fraser Institute, the carbon tax will cost the average Canadian worker $6,700 by 2030 and will reduce Canada’s GDP by 6.2% over that same period, resulting in 164,000 fewer jobs.”
The CTA said that the government claims that the carbon tax is intended to encourage truckers to switch to “less carbon-intensive alternatives” for fuel, however, since these “don’t exist in the long-haul sector for the foreseeable future,” the tax misses its intended purpose.
“Instead, carbon pricing will only continue to increase the cost of transportation services and, therefore, all goods that are moved by truck, including food, clothing, household goods and all other products that are critical to the wellbeing of Canadians,” it said.
The CTA said that while the effects of the carbon tax on individual trucking companies may be felt more acutely, but that for some fleets and operators it “may over time be the difference between staying in business or not.”
“Enough is enough. Jagmeet Singh must join with Common Sense Conservatives in calling for a carbon tax election,” reads the joint statement from Lawrence and Hallan.
“Only then can a Pierre Poilievre government axe the tax and bring home powerful paycheques for all Canadians.”