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The Government of Saskatchewan says new legislation keeping the federal carbon tax off home heating bills for another year will save the average family about $480 in the year ahead.
The legislation was introduced on Tuesday in order to keep a commitment Premier Scott Moe’s Saskatchewan Party made during the recent provincial election campaign. According to the government, dropping Justin Trudeau’s carbon tax from home heating bills has saved the average Saskatchewan family roughly $400 this year. With the carbon price increasing from $80 to $95 per tonne on April 1, the government said the average family will save approximately $480 in 2025.
The provincial government’s move to drop the federal tax from home heating bills was a response to Ottawa’s decision to stop charging its carbon tax on oil used for home heating, which primarily benefits residents of Atlantic provinces.
“Our government is protecting Saskatchewan families’ ability to affordably heat their homes this winter and ensuring fairness for those same families who were left out in the cold by the Prime Minister’s decision to exempt the carbon tax from home heating oil,” Jeremy Harrison, the minister responsible for SaskEnergy, said in a statement.
“Our government will keep fighting until the carbon tax is removed everywhere, on everything, for everyone.”
The new legislation will repeal a sunset clause in the original bill which takes effect on December 20, “thus ensuring that the Government of Saskatchewan remains the sole registered distributor of natural gas for the purposes of the federal Greenhouse Gas Pollution Pricing Act throughout 2025 and beyond.”
While the majority of homes in Saskatchewan are heated by natural gas, the provincial government has also taken steps to ensure that those who use electric heat at home are able to do so without the burden of the carbon tax.
While the Government of Saskatchewan has been pushing back against the carbon tax since before it was first imposed, the tax is not the only point of contention between the provincial and federal governments on fossil fuels. Moe has recently condemned draft regulations from Ottawa which would place an emissions cap on Canada’s oil and gas sector, saying the rules amount to a limit on production, and warning that the measure would have “serious economic impacts on Canadians.”
