Todd MacKay, prairie director of the Canadian Taxpayers Federation, spoke about the potential carbon tax costs to representatives from various rural municipalities at the Saskatchewan Association of Rural Municipalities (SARM) Division 2 meeting on June 11 at Mosaic Place.
MacKay laid out the numbers, to show RM representatives exactly how this tax could be affecting them.
Currently, the carbon tax is adding 4.4 cents per litre of gasoline and 5.3 cents per litre of diesel. Next year, based on the program agreement, those numbers will increase to 11 cents per litre of gasoline and 13.4 cents per litre of diesel.
MacKay also offered a chart estimating the general total additional costs a smaller RM could be looking at with this tax in 2019: an additional $1,100 on heat bills, $175 on power bills, and $4,000 and $500 on diesel and gasoline, respectively.
The ballpark numbers for a larger RM were even bigger, as MacKay noted that things like trucking and construction projects are all affected by the tax.
MacKay encouraged RM representatives to budget for these costs to avoid surprises and to try and reduce both consumption of resources and spending, to offset having to swallow the extra expense.
Sacha Martens, reeve for the RM of Lake Johnston in the Mossbank area, had a few questions about how other parts of Canada are addressing the issue.
“[In terms of the carbon tax], it was about how the repeal process is going to work, and some of the angles that, provincially, different provinces are taking on the tax,” said Martens.
SARM, as well as the CTF, are both vocally opposed to the federal carbon tax imposed by the federal government in April. The Saskatchewan government is continuing to oppose the legislation — alongside Alberta, New Brunswick, and Ontario.
Saskatchewan filed an appeal on the issue to the Supreme Court on May 31.
The SARM meeting saw 13 RMs from throughout Division 2 represented during the discussion and is one of several divisional meetings SARM hosts through the year.
For more coverage of the topics discussed at the SARM meeting, click here and here.
