Manitoba’s Premier says he will continue to oppose the imposition of a federally imposed carbon tax.
As part of the speech from the throne, delivered Tuesday, the Manitoba government reaffirmed its commitment to enhancing the resilience of the province’s natural infrastructure to meet climate-change challenges.
Premier Brian Pallister told reporters participating in a telephone news conference opposition to the imposition of a federally imposed carbon levy continues to build.
Here in Manitoba we’re the only province frankly that advanced what the Prime Minister described as the best green plan in the country and yet it was still rejected by the federal government because we said we’ll do a lower carbon tax and we’ll keep it flat and then we’re going to give it back in tax reductions to our people so it doesn’t hurt our economy. That was our model developed by Manitobans for Manitoba’s situation because, as you know, in Manitoba under the previous government we saw the highest tax hikes in Canada bar none and it was really hurting our communities, it was hurting our small business sector and frankly it was hurting all Manitobans that have to pay the bills.
So we said we can’t afford to go backwards here and have a carbon tax imposed on us. The Prime Minister looked me in the eye and said we’ll agree with your plan for one year. That meant we would have to fight to stop him from invoking a higher tax every subsequent year and I said, if I’ve got to fight you in a year, I might as well fight you now Sir.
That’s where Manitoba has been at. We’ve been very I think thoughtful in developing a great green plan. We’ll proceed with our green plan but we’ll oppose this carbon tax because we see it as dangerous to our economic future and dangerous frankly to Manitoba families. That’s where we’re at and we’ll continue to do the best we can to work with the federal government when we think they’re right but we’ll also stand up and tell them when we think they’re wrong and we think they’re wrong on this.
~ Brian Pallister, Premier Manitoba
Pallister acknowledges climate change is real and he remains committed to practical on the ground green initiatives that will assist communities while creating jobs.
