Poilievre accuses Trudeau of creating 'two classes of citizenship' with home heating oil tax pause

Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre on Wednesday accused Prime Minister Justin Trudeau of creating "two classes" of Canadians by carving out a carbon tax exemption for people who use home heating oil while requiring households using other fuels to pay the levy.

Speaking to a Conservative caucus meeting on Parliament Hill, Poilievre said it's fundamentally unfair that a fuel source largely used by rural residents of Atlantic Canada will go untaxed during the government's three-year "pause."

"After eight years of Justin Trudeau, everything is broken. What does he do when the heat starts? He divides and distracts. He will once again tear apart the country, turn Canadian against Canadian. We know how he does it. He divides by race, sexuality, vaccine status and now region. That's his latest divide and conquer strategy," Poilievre said.

Poilievre put pressure on NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh, who is propping up the Liberal minority government through the supply and confidence agreement, to reject Trudeau and his approach.

"He's going to vilify people in different parts of the country," Poilievre said of Trudeau.

"It's being condemned by even some New Democrats. The NDP in Saskatchewan and Alberta have come out against the two classes of citizenship that Justin Trudeau has imposed with his carbon tax on heat."

"The question becomes, what will Jagmeet Singh do? Will he once again sell out working class Canadians to suck up to Justin Trudeau?" Poilievre said to applause from the assembled Conservative MPs and senators.

Statistics Canada data shows just three per cent of Canadians use oil to heat their homes.

But it's much more common in Newfoundland and Labrador (18 per cent), Prince Edward Island (40 per cent) and Nova Scotia (32 per cent) — areas that sent a strong contingent of Liberal MPs to the House of Commons.

Very few homes in Ontario (2 per cent), Quebec (4 per cent), New Brunswick (7 per cent) or B.C. (1 per cent) rely on oil.

Oil isn't used for home heating at all in the Prairie provinces of Alberta, Manitoba and Saskatchewan, where natural gas is the main fuel source.

Rural Economic Development Minister Gudie Hutchings suggested in a recent CTV interview that the carve-out for home heating oil was driven by advocacy from Atlantic Canadian Liberal MPs.

"The Atlantic caucus was vocal with what they've heard from their constituents, and perhaps they need to elect more Liberals in the Prairies so that we can have that conversation as well," she said.

To address this apparent regional disparity, Poilievre said his party will introduce a motion tomorrow to extend the carbon tax exemption to "all Canadians everywhere."