After PBO carbon price costing error, ‘results will be different’: minister

'Clearly, if you made a mistake, the natural conclusion is that the result will be different,' the environment minister said ahead of the Liberal caucus meeting Wednesday.

Environment Minister Steven Guilbeault says he expects the next carbon price analysis from parliamentary budget officer (PBO) Yves Giroux will yield a different result after the PBO corrected their past analysis.

The original data has been frequently cited by the Conservatives in saying the pollution levy drives up the cost of living.

“Clearly, if you made a mistake, the natural conclusion is that the result will be different,” Guilbeault said ahead of the Liberal caucus meeting Wednesday.

As first reported by The Canadian Press Tuesday, the PBO issued a correction to their March 2022 carbon price analysis that says it costs Canadians more than they receive in rebates when broader economic factors are considered, such as lost employment and investment income.

The PBO correction on their website, updated last month, said this model included both the consumer fuel charge and the industrial carbon levy, when only the fuel charge on things like gasoline and natural gas should have been considered in this model.

Speaking with Global News, Giroux said his office discovered the error while working on the updated carbon price analysis, expected to be published this fall.

Despite the coming change, Giroux doesn’t expect the outcome to differ that much due to large portions of industrial emissions being exempt from the carbon price.

“So, we expect this to have a marginal impact on our overall numbers for the economic impact. But it shouldn’t change the overall conclusions of the report,” Giroux said.