The federal government is rebranding the carbon tax rebate.
Previously known as the Climate Action Incentive Payment, the Liberals are now calling it the “Canada Carbon Rebate.”
The news of the new name for the existing rebate program was first broken via a Finance Canada press release touting the amount Canadians will be reimbursed this year. It was subsequently announced by a series of ministers in Ottawa on Wednesday.
The change does not come with any adjustments to how the federal fuel charge system and corresponding refund actually works.
“The name was updated to the Canada Carbon Rebate to clarify its function, and make its meaning and relationship to the carbon pricing system more intuitive for Canadians,” reads a government press release.
Conceding that the previous name was difficult to understand or connect to the carbon tax plan, ministers said Wednesday they felt there was room for improvement when it came to how they communicated about the “complex” issue of carbon pricing and the Liberals’ “revenue neutral” approach.
“If we can speak the language that people speak because people say the words ‘carbon,’ they say the words, ‘rebate,’ right? And if we can speak that language that’s important, so people understand what’s going on here,” said Labour Minister Seamus O’Regan.
The pollution pricing program and corresponding rebate system has been in effect since 2019. It applies a levy on greenhouse gas emissions, making it more expensive to burn fossil fuels, in an effort to encourage Canadians to change their habits.
The rebates are given to Canadians through direct deposit or cheque every three months, in provinces where the federal backstop system applies.
Starting in April, a family of four will receive “Canada Carbon Rebates” of:
$1,800 in Alberta ($450 quarterly);
$1,200 in Manitoba ($300 quarterly);
$1,120 in Ontario ($280 quarterly);
$1,504 in Saskatchewan ($376 quarterly);
$760 in New Brunswick ($190 quarterly);
$824 in Nova Scotia ($206 quarterly);
$880 in Prince Edward Island ($220 quarterly); and,
$1,192 in Newfoundland and Labrador ($298 quarterly).
Talks of a rebrand have been circling on the Hill since MPs got back to the capital last month, aafter Prime Minister Justin Trudeau faced months of political heat last fall for advancing select carbon tax carve-outs.
This year’s rebate amounts reflect the reduced revenue coming as a result of the temporary pause of the fuel charge on deliveries of home heating oil that came into effect in November.
During Wednesday’s press conference, the Liberals equated Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre’s ardent opposition to the carbon tax to axing these payments to families.
Instead of charging back during question period, Poilievre focused his questions on the government’s mismanagement of the ArriveCan application and what he called Environment Minister Steven Guilbeault’s “war on cars,” referring to the minister’s recent declaration that the federal government will stop investing in new road infrastructure.
Last month Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland pointed to the at-times nondescript direct deposits that land in Canadians’ bank accounts, and said that “Canadians have the right to know what they’re getting.”
Now, while vowing their climate plan is working, Guilbeault said Wednesday that the Liberals are working with financial institutions to “make sure that it’s labelled properly so that people actually know what it is.”
Reacting to the rebrand, senior energy strategist at Greenpeace Canada Keith Stewart said he was glad to see the government give the program a name that better describes what it is.
“I didn’t know what the Climate Action Incentive Payment was and I work on climate policy for a living,” he said in an emailed comment to CTV News. “I’ll bet that once people see that line on their bank statement, they’ll think twice about the nonsense being spread by many Conservative politicians.”
The Canadian Taxpayers Federation chalked the move up to “lipstick on a pig,” noting the carbon price is rising to 17 cents per litre as of April 1.
“Trudeau’s real problem isn’t that Canadians don’t know what his government is doing, Trudeau’s real problem is that Canadians know his carbon tax is making life more expensive,” said CTF federal director Franco Terrazzano in a statement.
VANCOUVER – Contract negotiations resume today in Vancouver in a labour dispute that has paralyzed container cargo shipping at British Columbia’s ports since Monday.
The BC Maritime Employers Association and International Longshore and Warehouse Union Local 514 are scheduled to meet for the next three days in mediated talks to try to break a deadlock in negotiations.
The union, which represents more than 700 longshore supervisors at ports, including Vancouver, Prince Rupert and Nanaimo, has been without a contract since March last year.
The latest talks come after employers locked out workers in response to what it said was “strike activity” by union members.
The start of the lockout was then followed by several days of no engagement between the two parties, prompting federal Labour Minister Steven MacKinnon to speak with leaders on both sides, asking them to restart talks.
MacKinnon had said that the talks were “progressing at an insufficient pace, indicating a concerning absence of urgency from the parties involved” — a sentiment echoed by several business groups across Canada.
In a joint letter, more than 100 organizations, including the Canadian Chamber of Commerce, Business Council of Canada and associations representing industries from automotive and fertilizer to retail and mining, urged the government to do whatever it takes to end the work stoppage.
“While we acknowledge efforts to continue with mediation, parties have not been able to come to a negotiated agreement,” the letter says. “So, the federal government must take decisive action, using every tool at its disposal to resolve this dispute and limit the damage caused by this disruption.
“We simply cannot afford to once again put Canadian businesses at risk, which in turn puts Canadian livelihoods at risk.”
In the meantime, the union says it has filed a complaint to the Canada Industrial Relations Board against the employers, alleging the association threatened to pull existing conditions out of the last contract in direct contact with its members.
“The BCMEA is trying to undermine the union by attempting to turn members against its democratically elected leadership and bargaining committee — despite the fact that the BCMEA knows full well we received a 96 per cent mandate to take job action if needed,” union president Frank Morena said in a statement.
The employers have responded by calling the complaint “another meritless claim,” adding the final offer to the union that includes a 19.2 per cent wage increase over a four-year term remains on the table.
“The final offer has been on the table for over a week and represents a fair and balanced proposal for employees, and if accepted would end this dispute,” the employers’ statement says. “The offer does not require any concessions from the union.”
The union says the offer does not address the key issue of staffing requirement at the terminals as the port introduces more automation to cargo loading and unloading, which could potentially require fewer workers to operate than older systems.
The Port of Vancouver is the largest in Canada and has seen a number of labour disruptions, including two instances involving the rail and grain storage sectors earlier this year.
A 13-day strike by another group of workers at the port last year resulted in the disruption of a significant amount of shipping and trade.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 9, 2024.
The Royal Canadian Legion says a new partnership with e-commerce giant Amazon is helping boost its veterans’ fund, and will hopefully expand its donor base in the digital world.
Since the Oct. 25 launch of its Amazon.ca storefront, the legion says it has received nearly 10,000 orders for poppies.
Online shoppers can order lapel poppies on Amazon in exchange for donations or buy items such as “We Remember” lawn signs, Remembrance Day pins and other accessories, with all proceeds going to the legion’s Poppy Trust Fund for Canadian veterans and their families.
Nujma Bond, the legion’s national spokesperson, said the organization sees this move as keeping up with modern purchasing habits.
“As the world around us evolves we have been looking at different ways to distribute poppies and to make it easier for people to access them,” she said in an interview.
“This is definitely a way to reach a wider number of Canadians of all ages. And certainly younger Canadians are much more active on the web, on social media in general, so we’re also engaging in that way.”
Al Plume, a member of a legion branch in Trenton, Ont., said the online store can also help with outreach to veterans who are far from home.
“For veterans that are overseas and are away, (or) can’t get to a store they can order them online, it’s Amazon.” Plume said.
Plume spent 35 years in the military with the Royal Engineers, and retired eight years ago. He said making sure veterans are looked after is his passion.
“I’ve seen the struggles that our veterans have had with Veterans Affairs … and that’s why I got involved, with making sure that the people get to them and help the veterans with their paperwork.”
But the message about the Amazon storefront didn’t appear to reach all of the legion’s locations, with volunteers at Branch 179 on Vancouver’s Commercial Drive saying they hadn’t heard about the online push.
Holly Paddon, the branch’s poppy campaign co-ordinator and bartender, said the Amazon partnership never came up in meetings with other legion volunteers and officials.
“I work at the legion, I work with the Vancouver poppy office and I go to the meetings for the Vancouver poppy campaign — which includes all the legions in Vancouver — and not once has this been mentioned,” she said.
Paddon said the initiative is a great idea, but she would like to have known more about it.
The legion also sells a larger collection of items at poppystore.ca.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 9, 2024.
