British Columbia’s government is fast-tracking the end of its consumer carbon tax ahead of the lifting of the federal equivalent on Tuesday, with Premier David Eby saying consumers should expect immediate price relief at the gas pumps.
The NDP’s bill amending B.C.’s Carbon Tax Act to set the consumer rate at $0 has passed its first reading, with B.C. Green MLA Rob Botterell the lone dissenting vote.
Eby’s government then successfully sought accelerated consideration to pass the legislation in one day, after a two-week break in sittings of the legislature.
The premier told a news conference that consumers should expect a gas price drop of 17 cents per litre when the consumer tax is lifted Tuesday.
NDP House Leader Mike Farnworth had told the legislature the bill’s passage was a “matter of confidence” for the government, and Speaker Raj Chouhan later ruled the bill sufficiently urgent and limited in scope to meet the test for fast-tracking.
Opposition finance critic Peter Milobar had said the government could have dealt with the bill sooner by recalling the legislature, and instead it waited until the “11th hour.”
He said the government’s approach has been “ham-fisted,” unfairly cutting off discussion among members of the legislature.
“We are essentially left to spend a couple of hours trying to quickly cobble together a cognizant response to something that has been in the public conversation for quite some time,” Milobar said in the legislature on Monday.
B.C. Green Leader Jeremy Valeriote, meanwhile, said his party couldn’t support passing the bill in a single day.
He said members of the legislature “need time to seek answers from government” about how it intends to resolve issues, including the end of the climate action tax rebate that B.C. residents had come to expect on a quarterly basis and the significant financial shortfall the end of the tax leaves for the province.
“We don’t consider that meeting the convenience of fuel producers or aligning with other provinces is sufficient grounds for urgency,” Valeriote told the legislature.
A joint statement issued by Eby’s office and the ministries of energy and finance says cancelling the tax and credit will have an estimated impact of $1.99 billion in the coming fiscal year.
“The province will restructure programs funded by carbon tax revenue to minimize the impact on B.C.’s budget, while supporting people in British Columbia in achieving climate goals,” the statement says.
Eby has said the province would continue to ensure big industrial emitters pay through the output-based carbon-pricing system.
Tariff response rollback
The legislative break also included a significant rollback of the government’s proposed response to U.S. tariffs on Canadian goods.
Monday’s sitting is the first since Eby announced the removal of a portion of the controversial tariff response bill that would have given his cabinet sweeping powers to address challenges “arising from the actions of a foreign jurisdiction” without them being debated in the legislature.
Eby said last week that the bill was still needed but required more safeguards after stakeholders raised concerns about overreach, while the Opposition B.C. Conservatives have said the whole thing needs to be scrapped.
U.S. President Donald Trump has said he will be bringing new “reciprocal” tariffs against Canada starting April 2, while Prime Minister Mark Carney has responded that Canada would implement new retaliatory tariffs if the president goes ahead.
