The B.C. government has announced it will completely scrap the provincial consumer-facing carbon tax on April 1 and is urging gas stations to prepare for the change.
The government previously announced that it would introduce legislation on March 31 to halt a scheduled tax increase, following a promise from Prime Minister Mark Carney to do the same at the federal level.
However, the Ministry of Finance now says the legislation will enable the complete removal of the tax as of April 1.
British Columbians will soon have to pay less when they fill up their gas tanks. The province and the federal government are cancelling the consumer carbon tax, effective April 1. But with the disappearance of the associated tax credit, will the cancellation put money back into British Columbian’s pockets?
It says it expects natural gas providers and those who sell fuel to stop charging the tax on that date.
According to current numbers, the carbon tax adds about 17 cents a litre to the price of gas in B.C. and 15 cents per cubic metre to natural gas.
It was also projected to add about $1.5 billion to the provincial budget in the coming fiscal year — money that has yet to be accounted for in other ways since the announcement that the tax would be coming to an end. Money from the program goes toward groups like TransLink and B.C. Transit, among others.
The government has said it will shift its focus to “big industrial emitters,” which it says it will “incentivize” to adopt lower-carbon technologies.
B.C. Conservative Party Opposition Leader John Rustad has said he thinks it’s time to eliminate all components of the carbon tax, including the tax on industrial emitters.
