The federal carbon tax and its associated rebates rise today as the national price on carbon emissions increases from $65 per tonne to $80.
While the national carbon price applies across the country, not everyone pays the federal carbon tax and receives money back.
Carbon pricing works differently in Quebec, the three territories and British Columbia — residents don’t receive federal rebates. The remaining provinces are subject to the federal government’s carbon tax or fuel levy, and families or residents receive rebates from Ottawa.
Canada also has a mix of federal, provincial and territorial carbon pricing systems for industrial emitters.
Starting today, the federal carbon tax increase will cost drivers an extra 3.3 cents per litre at the pump. Since Ottawa’s fuel levy was introduced in 2019, the carbon tax has added 17.6 cents to the cost of a litre of gasoline. The levies for other fuels can be found online.
The rebates — recently rebranded as the Canadian Carbon Rebate — also have increased along with the carbon price, says Finance Canada. To receive the rebate, you need to file an income tax return. The rebate arrives through direct deposit in your bank account or through a cheque in the mail.
The payments come every three months; the next one is scheduled to arrive as early as April 15.
Here are the amounts a single adult person can expect to receive quarterly:
$225 in Alberta.
$150 in Manitoba.
$140 in Ontario.
$188 in Saskatchewan.
$95 in New Brunswick.
$103 in Nova Scotia.
$110 in Prince Edward Island.
$149 in Newfoundland and Labrador.
Here are the amounts a family of four can expect to receive quarterly:
$450 in Alberta.
$300 in Manitoba.
$280 in Ontario.
$376 in Saskatchewan.
$190 in New Brunswick.
$206 in Nova Scotia.
$220 in Prince Edward Island.
$298 in Newfoundland and Labrador.
Rural residents get a 10 per cent top-up on their rebates because they tend to drive more and consume more fuel. That rural top-up will double once a bill now before Parliament becomes law.
Nova Scotia, P.E.I, and Newfoundland and Labrador, however, will see their rebates decrease after Ottawa exempted home heating oil from the carbon tax. In October, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced the government will pause for three years the carbon pricing scheme on home heating oil in the provinces and territories where the carbon levy applies.
While New Brunswick is not seeing a drop in rebate amounts, other Atlantic provinces are because Ottawa is collecting less money from these provinces that tend to be more reliant on furnace oil than other parts of the country.
All the money that’s directly collected by the federal carbon pricing system, the federal government said, is returned to the province or territory where it’s collected. About 90 per of the federal carbon tax goes towards rebates. The remainder goes to Indigenous communities, farmers and businesses.
National carbon pricing, a core federal Liberal climate policy, faces mounting opposition. Before Monday’s rise, the opposition Conservatives and at least seven premiers called on the government to halt the increase. Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre says if he forms government he will “axe the tax,” because of the financial hardship the rising carbon price places on families and businesses.
It’s unclear if a future federal Conservative government would also get rid of carbon pricing for industrial emitters. Poilievre has not detailed how his proposal to use “technology not taxes” would ensure Canada achieves its emissions reduction targets.
The federal government says eight out of 10 families receive more in rebates than they pay under the carbon tax. The total amounts also can be found online.
A fiscal analysis by the independent parliamentary budget officer backs Ottawa’s claim. The budget watchdog’s often-cited report found wealthy families will lose money when the carbon price reaches its highest level in 2030-31 at $170 per tonne. Lower and middle-income families will make money from the rebates, said the Parliamentary Budget Officer (PBO).
WATCH | Got questions about the carbon tax? We’ve got answers:
Carbon tax crash course: How it works and what it will cost you
3 days ago
Duration 6:16
With Canada’s carbon tax set to increase again on April 1, many Canadians have been asking questions about how it works and what the increase will cost. CBC’s David Thurton breaks down the policy, the price and the rebates.
The PBO also concluded in a separate economic analysis that at $170 per tonne, the federal carbon tax will cut jobs and profits in the transport and oil and gas sectors. This means workers in the oilpatch could lose their jobs and Canadians who hold shares in oil companies like Suncor or Cenovus could see lower investment returns.
Are emissions falling because of the carbon tax?
After several years of the national carbon price. Environment and Climate Change Canada said its modelling shows Canada’s emissions would have been higher without carbon pricing.
The federal department said that in the latest year for emissions data (2021), emissions “would have been approximately 18 megatonnes higher in the absence of Canada’s carbon pricing plan.” That figure is almost equivalent to the annual emissions of Manitoba.
“Changing the energy system in an economy is a lot like sort of steering a cargo ship. It does take time,” said Sara Hastings-Simon, an associate professor at the University of Calgary’s faculty of science who studies carbon pricing and energy transitions.
“So we are just starting to see those, the results of those efforts and that … if we can continue on that path, if we continue to have the suite of climate policies that we have in place, we will continue to see those emissions starting to fall from where they would have been and actually fall in an absolute sense.”
The federal government has said that the price on carbon, including consumer and industrial carbon pricing, is expected to account for roughly one-third of Canada’s emissions reductions.
Independent analysis from the Canadian Climate Institute, released in March, shows that the current suite of federal government climate policies is set to significantly reduce Canada’s emissions.
The report found that carbon pricing — both the consumer and industrial versions — is projected to reduce emissions by as much as 50 per cent by 2030.
The report shows the pricing policy for large emitters accounts for most of the projected emissions cuts — driving three times the emissions reductions attributed to the consumer carbon price.
WATCH | Clarifying a carbon tax analysis:
Parliamentary budget officer says carbon tax ‘least disruptive’ way to reduce emissions
11 days ago
Duration 10:59
The parliamentary budget officer looked into the impact carbon pricing has on Canadian households. Both the Liberals and the Conservatives have been using his findings to their advantage. Parliamentary Budget Officer Yves Giroux joined Power & Politics to clarify.
The institute’s report says industrial carbon pricing is projected to contribute “between 23 and 39 per cent (or 53 to 90 megatonnes) of avoided emissions from all policies implemented to date.”
The report says the consumer carbon price accounts for between 8 and 9 per cent (or 19 to 22 megatonnes) of projected emissions reductions.
The Canadian Climate Institute conducts climate change policy research. It describes itself as a non-partisan and independent institute that receives financial support from Environment and Climate Change Canada and other private donors including the Ivey Foundation, Scotiabank and Loblaws.
MONCTON, N.B. – New Brunswick RCMP say two youths have been arrested after an emergency alert was issued Monday evening about someone carrying a gun in the province’s southeast.
Caledonia Region Mounties say they were first called out to Main Street in the community of Salisbury around 7 p.m. on reports of a shooting.
A 48-year-old man was found at the scene suffering from gunshot wounds and he was rushed to hospital with non-life-threatening injuries.
Police say in the interest of public safety, they issued an Alert Ready message at 8:15 p.m. for someone driving a silver Ford F-150 pickup truck and reportedly carrying a firearm with dangerous intent in the Salisbury and Moncton area.
Two youths were arrested without incident later in the evening in Salisbury, and the alert was cancelled just after midnight Tuesday.
Police are still looking for the silver pickup truck, covered in mud, with possible Nova Scotia licence plate HDC 958. They now confirm the truck was stolen from Central Blissville.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 16, 2024.
MISSISSAUGA, Ont. – Golf Canada has set an impressive stretch goal of having 30 professional golfers at the highest levels of the sport by 2032.
The World Junior Girls Golf Championship is a huge part of that target.
Credit Valley Golf and Country Club will host the international tournament from Sept. 30 to Oct. 5, with 24 teams representing 23 nations — Canada gets two squads — competing. Lindsay McGrath, a 17-year-old golfer from Oakville, Ont., said she’s excited to be representing Canada and continue to develop her game.
“I’m really grateful to be here,” said McGrath on Monday after a news conference in Credit Valley’s clubhouse in Mississauga, Ont. “It’s just such an awesome feeling being here and representing our country, wearing all the logos and being on Team Canada.
“I’ve always wanted to play in this tournament, so it’s really special to me.”
McGrath will be joined by Nobelle Park of Oakville, Ont., and Eileen Park of Red Deer, Alta., on Team Canada 2. All three earned their places through a qualifying tournament last month.
“I love my teammates so much,” said McGrath. “I know Nobelle and Eileen very well. I’m just so excited to be with them. We have such a great relationship.”
Shauna Liu of Maple, Ont., Calgary’s Aphrodite Deng and Clairey Lin make up Team Canada 2. Liu earned her exemption following her win at the 2024 Canadian Junior Girls Championship while Deng earned her exemption as being the low eligible Canadian on the world amateur golf ranking as of Aug. 7.
Deng was No. 175 at the time, she has since improved to No. 171 and is Canada’s lowest-ranked player.
“I think it’s a really great opportunity,” said Liu. “We don’t really get that many opportunities to play with people from across the world, so it’s really great to meet new people and play with them.
“It’s great to see maybe how they play and take parts from their game that we might also implement our own games.”
Golf Canada founded the World Junior Girls Golf Championship in 2014 to fill a void in women’s international competition and help grow its own homegrown talent. The hosts won for the first time last year when Vancouver’s Anna Huang, Toronto’s Vanessa Borovilos and Vancouver’s Vanessa Zhang won team gold and Huang earned individual silver.
Medallists who have gone on to win on the LPGA Tour include Brooke Henderson of Smiths Falls, Ont., who was fourth in the individual competition at the inaugural tournament. She was on Canada’s bronze-medal team in 2014 with Selena Costabile of Thornhill, Ont., and Calgary’s Jaclyn Lee.
Other notable competitors who went on to become LPGA Tour winners include Angel Yin and Megan Khang of the United States, as well as Yuka Saso of the Philippines, Sweden’s Linn Grant and Atthaya Thitikul of Thailand.
“It’s not if, it’s when they’re going to be on the LPGA Tour,” said Garrett Ball, Golf Canada’s chief operating officer, of how Canada’s golfers in the World Junior Girls Championship can be part of the organization’s goal to have 30 pros in the LPGA and PGA Tours by 2032.
“Events like this, like the She Plays Golf festival that we launched two years ago, and then the CPKC Women’s Open exemptions that we utilize to bring in our national team athletes and get the experience has been important in that pathway.”
The individual winner of the World Junior Girls Golf Championship will earn a berth in next year’s CPKC Women’s Open at nearby Mississaugua Golf and Country Club.
Both clubs, as well as former RBC Canadian Open host site Glen Abbey Golf Club, were devastated by heavy rains through June and July as the Greater Toronto Area had its wettest summer in recorded history.
Jason Hanna, the chief operating officer of Credit Valley Golf and Country Club, said that he has seen the Credit River flood so badly that it affected the course’s playability a handful of times over his nearly two decades with the club.
Staff and members alike came together to clean up the course after the flooding was over, with hundreds of people coming together to make the club playable again.
“You had to show up, bring your own rake, bring your own shovel, bring your own gloves, and then we’d take them down to the golf course, assign them to areas where they would work, and then we would do a big barbecue down at the halfway house,” said Hanna. “We got guys, like, 80 years old, putting in eight-hour days down there, working away.”
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 16, 2024.
NEW YORK (AP) — Fenway Park has the Ted Williams seat. And now Citi Field has the Grimace seat.
The kid-friendly McDonald’s character made another appearance at the ballpark Monday, when the New York Mets unveiled a commemorative purple seat in section 302 to honor “his special connection to Mets fans.”
Wearing his pear-shaped purple costume and a baseball glove on backwards, Grimace threw out a funny-looking first pitch — as best he could with those furry fingers and short arms — before New York beat the Miami Marlins at Citi Field on June 12.
That victory began a seven-game winning streak, and Grimace the Mets’ good-luck charm soon went viral, taking on a life of its own online.
New York is 53-31 since June 12, the best record in the majors during that span. The Mets were tied with rival Atlanta for the last National League playoff spot as they opened their final homestand of the season Monday night against Washington.
The new Grimace seat in the second deck in right field — located in row 6, seat 12 to signify 6/12 on the calendar — was brought into the Shannon Forde press conference room Monday afternoon. The character posed next to the chair and with fans who strolled into the room.
The seat is available for purchase for each of the Mets’ remaining home games.
“It’s been great to see how our fanbase created the Grimace phenomenon following his first pitch in June and in the months since,” Mets senior vice president of partnerships Brenden Mallette said in a news release. “As we explored how to further capture the magic of this moment and celebrate our new celebrity fan, installing a commemorative seat ahead of fan appreciation weekend felt like the perfect way to give something back to the fans in a fun and unique way.”
Up in Boston, the famous Ted Williams seat is painted bright red among rows of green chairs deep in the right-field stands at Fenway Park to mark where a reported 502-foot homer hit by the Hall of Fame slugger landed in June 1946.
So, does this catapult Grimace into Splendid Splinter territory?
“I don’t know if we put him on the same level,” Mets executive vice president and chief marketing officer Andy Goldberg said with a grin.
“It’s just been a fun year, and at the same time, we’ve been playing great ball. Ever since the end of May, we have been crushing it,” he explained. “So I think that added to the mystique.”
