NDP keep carbon tax debate alive in the House with motion calling for home heating GST relief
CTV
NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh and his party are keeping the carbon pricing debate alive in the House of Commons Tuesday, advancing a motion calling for Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to remove the GST off all forms of home heating. Later today, the Senate is set to vote on advancing a bill seeking further carbon price exemptions.
NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh and his party are keeping the carbon pricing debate alive in the House of Commons Tuesday, advancing a motion calling for Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to remove the GST off all forms of home heating.
It's an affordability-focused push the New Democrats have been making for months, but amid the current political firestorm the Liberals are facing over their recent carbon tax carve-out for home heating oil and doubling of the rural rebate top-up, attention on the issue has gained new traction.
Similar to Monday's failed Conservative motion calling for the three-year pause on the carbon price collected from home heating oil to be expanded to all forms of home heating, Singh's proposal is non-binding, meaning even if it passes, it won't force the government to act.
Specifically, the NDP motion is calling for three things:
"Canadians continue to struggle with dramatic increases to the cost of living while Canada’s biggest corporations, including oil and gas corporations, post record profits," reads the motion in-part, sponsored by B.C. NDP MP Taylor Bachrach.
"[And] federal government programs aimed at supporting energy-efficient retrofits such as heat pumps are hard to access, especially for low-income Canadians … effective climate action must also address the very real affordability concerns of ordinary Canadians."
While the motion will be debated for the majority of the sitting day Tuesday, it won't come to a vote until later in the week. Early indications are that it may be unlikely that the Conservative caucus will be reciprocating the support the NDP lent to their latest carbon tax motion.
