After pulling out of the Liberal-NDP confidence and supply agreement, NDP leader Jagmeet Singh says that his party no longer supports the Trudeau government’s carbon tax scheme.
In a press conference addressing reporters and the NDP’s caucus retreat, Singh disparaged both the Liberal party and the Conservative party’s approach to the carbon tax, promising a third option to benefit Canadian workers.
Singh disparaged Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre’s approach to environmental policy, repeating the false claim that the Tory leader supports businesses freely dumping pollutants into the environment.
“He [Poilievre] wants to have free reign for big polluters to pollute as much as they want. His plan is to say there should be no penalty if a company pollutes into the river, or to the water, or to the air in their communities,” said Singh.
While Poilievre has signalled that his party would repeal the Trudeau government’s carbon tax, they have not promised to scrap business regulations restricting polluting the natural environment. The Conservatives also introduced a bill to prohibit the dumping of toxic waste in 2021 that was eventually killed by the NDP and Liberals in Parliament.
Singh also expressed concern that the Trudeau government’s carbon tax is punishing Canadians workers while making exemptions to the tax for certain regions of the country important to the Liberal party’s electoral success.
“When it comes to workers though, we disagree with the approach of Justin Trudeau, whose tried to pit workers against each other,” said Singh.
“He set up a scenario where in some regions based on electoral politics he’s giving advantages to the Atlantic provinces over other parts of the country. We disagree with that.”
Singh said that he would prefer an approach that punishes businesses that emit carbon while shielding workers from the impact of such a policy.
“We’re saying that they [businesses] should be paying their fare share. A company that pollutes and poisons the environment there should be a price on that, there should be a cost to that,” said Singh.
“We want to see an approach to fighting the climate crisis where it doesn’t put the burden on the backs of working people. Where big polluters have to pay their fair share, they have to pay their price of their pollution, but it shouldn’t be on working people’s shoulders.”
Singh and the NDP do not yet have a plan to protect the environment and reduce carbon emissions, but Singh says that the party is working on one and will be released to the public when complete.
Prime Minister Trudeau attacked Singh for abandoning his support of the Liberal party and claimed that while the NDP cares about fighting climate change, they have no plan to address the issue.
“I do believe that Jagmeet Singh and the NDP actually do care about the environment,” said Trudeau, contrasting Singh with Poilievre.
“It’s just increasingly obvious that they have no idea what to do to fight against climate change. In the 2021 election, they had no serious environmental plan.”
As for Conservative leader Poilievre, he has promised that his party would “axe the tax” upon forming government, calling on Parliament’s party leaders to call a “carbon tax election.”