The Real Deal with the Canada Carbon Rebate

The same report that supposedly says we're all making money with the carbon tax actually says the complete opposite. I'm sure you're shocked...

Apr 09, 2024

The government carbon tax rebate formerly known as the Climate Action Incentive Payment (CAIP) has now been rebranded for the new year as The Canada Carbon Rebate (CCR). With the government's recognized penchant for awkward and unwieldy acronyms, I was pleasantly surprised, as this one rolled off the tongue quite nicely. Well done, guys…

With all the hype about how much richer we're all becoming on account of the latest increase in the Carbon Tax, I was interested to see how much cash I had raked in last year. I crunched a few numbers and the following is what I discovered. I'm using last year's numbers for the carbon tax, because that's what the CCR (I love saying that) was based upon. Please keep in mind that as of April 1st, it's a fair bit higher than it was last year.

Here are my findings:

Carbon tax was 14.3¢ per litre of gasoline (it’s 17.6¢ now), so about $14 a tank for my truck. If I fill it up about every other week that's $364 for the year. Not quite sure how much the car uses, but I’m going to be really conservative and say it's about $200 in carbon tax for my wife to drive the car.

If that’s all we had to pay, that might not be so bad, but we also heat our house with a gas furnace - a house which is over 100 years old, and even though we put in all new windows about five or six years ago, the insulation isn’t quite what it should be. I wish we had money to update that part of it.

Carbon tax on natural gas is 12.39¢/m³ (now it's 15.25¢/m³). We used 1,752m³ of gas in the last year so that's $217 worth of carbon tax to heat my house. And this was on the mildest winter we’ve had in years with my high-efficiency gas furnace.

As a side note, the actual cost of natural gas in Manitoba is a little over eight and a half cents per cubic meter. That means the carbon tax is almost 1½ times the cost of the gas itself. Manitoba Hydro, my natural gas provider has a base charge of $14 per month just for being hooked up, and a delivery fee of 12.33¢/m³, which is fair, I suppose - those people need to get eat as well. And it’s actually less that what we’re paying for the carbon tax, so I suppose there’s that silver lining. On top of all of that is the provincial tax of 1.4% and GST. My total bill for March was $112. Of that $112, taxes amounted to over $40 and the vast majority of that ($36.04) was carbon tax. So yeah, 35% tax on the fuel to heat my house in one of the coldest populated places in the country.

For those of you who use heating oil to keep from freezing to death in the winter, I realize that you can only dream of having my problems. The cost of that is out of control, so it's right that the carbon tax was scrapped on that. Natural gas is one of the cheapest things going right now for heat, which by the way, is the biggest reason we ought to be exporting it all over the world. That alone would reduce the world's carbon footprint infinitely more than anything this carbon tax has ever done.

Now, Manitoba Hydro assures us that the typical household can expect to see an increase of about $63 for the year due to the carbon tax. Evidently we are far from the typical household. Either that, or they’re being extremely optimistic with that number. Good thing the water heater is electric.

The other thing that I noticed about my heating bill is that they don’t call this a “carbon tax” at all. They actually call it a carbon charge. Yes, because if they call it a carbon charge, then they are able to charge GST on it as well. I mean, you wouldn’t want to be caught charging a tax on a tax because that would just be mean, and maybe dishonest. So, now we can add up all these numbers that I’ve stated here and then we go ahead can add 5% to that total.

Truck fuel: $384
Car fuel: $200
Heating for the house: $217
Subtotal: $783
Plus GST: $39
Total: $840

That $840 is a mortgage payment for me, but I digress.

It looks like I was paid a total of $1,056 in carbon rebates last year, so although I’m being pretty conservative with the car fuel, it looks like I’m ahead about $216.

At least, this is what our government would like us to believe. To hammer this point home, Trudeau and company have been waving around this report from the Parliamentary Budget Officer that shows that the average household will be ahead by various amounts, depending upon where you live and how much money you make. What they apparently haven't got around to doing is actually reading the rest of the report. If you've ever done your own taxes, you'll be familiar with the concept of net income. Net income is the money you have left over after you've paid all your taxes. That's the only number that matters, but that's not the number we keep hearing about from Justin Trudeau. Here's the rest of the story, from their own report (emphasis mine):

When the economic impact is combined with the fiscal impact, the net cost increases for all households, reflecting the overall negative economic impact of the federal fuel charge. . .
Taking into consideration both fiscal and economic impacts, we estimate that most households will see a net loss, paying more in the federal fuel charge and GST, as well as receiving lower incomes, compared to the Climate Action Incentive payments they receive and lower personal income taxes they pay (due to lower incomes).

Wow. Please forgive me if I'm not feeling terribly encouraged by that. Part of the reason for this are the indirect costs associated with the carbon tax. It's very easy to calculate tax on fuel versus the cheques in your mailbox, but what's less obvious is how it impacts literally everything else we buy.

I did this same analysis two years ago when the carbon tax was increased in 2022. At that time I came out about $40 ahead but I didn't even include the fuel we purchased for the car. Also, it was wicked cold that winter so the furnace ran a lot more. Anyway, I was listening to talk radio CJOB on the way to work one morning in April, and the topic was What are you doing with your carbon tax refund?

After almost blowing my coffee all over the steering wheel, I immediately pulled over and I texted a lengthy response much like what I stated above. I ended with this:

So, if we go with the old pricing, it looks like I actually made $40.

It's a good thing I didn't try to account for the price increase of EVERY SINGLE OTHER THING that I've purchased in the last year due to the carbon tax because that would just ruin my day. I'd much rather just believe that I'm now forty dollars richer thanks to Justin Trudeau's carbon tax (under last year's numbers anyway).

After telling everyone what a wonderful job I did on the breakdown of where this tax goes, the host went ahead and highlighted how wonderful it was that I actually made $40 over the course of the year, while conveniently leaving out the last paragraph.

This is just another reminder (if one is really required) of how our "news" is constantly being filtered for us.

I'm always amazed at how people will argue so passionately that we really are better off because of this tax. It's delusional, but I really think it's like I said in that text to the radio show: they would just much rather believe that it's all good than have their day ruined by the facts.

Just the other day I had a guy try to tell me that “my anger” over the carbon tax was misplaced.

The carbon tax is levied on producers, not consumers. Gas companies have chosen to add it to their price. Direct your anger where it belongs.

Really, dude?

It's exhausting trying to explain this to people because I know they don't really want to know. For some reason it seems to be terribly difficult to grasp the concept that gas companies exist to make money - just like every other business in this country. I try to explain that I'm a builder and a contractor by trade, and I know that when my costs go up (fuel, lumber, etc.) that cost gets passed on to the customer. I don't know if that makes people angry, and nor do I care, because I'm not taking a pay cut to satisfy Justin Trudeau's ego, and I don't expect anyone else to do that either.

I'm actually a little perplexed that so many people seem to expect every business operator in the country to just eat that extra expense and say nothing.

For those of you who think this way: would you be so willing to take that kind of a pay cut at your job? Come to think of it, I can pretty much guaran-damn-tee you that whomever is signing your paycheque is also recouping that carbon tax expense from their customers, which is the reason you probably won't be taking a pay cut on account of that tax. Good thing too, eh?

There was a day when every person in this country would've thought it ridiculous that anyone would even try to suggest that a government tax would actually make us richer. Now, this seems to be the popular belief. A little while ago, Trudeau was in Winnipeg with his Ministry of Truth hat on and told everyone that politicians in Manitoba are "not being honest" with their constituents because "most people are further ahead with this tax".

What "most people" are is extremely gullible if that's what they really believe and our federal government loves that. The other thing our government loves is that the majority of the rest of the people that aren't so gullible are also fairly quiet about stuff like this because for some reason they're scared of being challenged on their opinion. Hopefully this helps you understand the situation a little bit better so you can feel confident about making some noise.

Justin Trudeau loves to blame all his hardships on misinformation and the far-right, but for the last three years, the vast majority of the misinformation we've been subjected to has been spewing from his mouth, and most of those he views as “far-right” are only that in relation to how far-left he and his party have drifted.

It's time to set the record straight.