Conservative leader Andrew ‘Chuckles’ Scheer sent another letter to prime minister Justin Trudeau. He wants Justin to come clean on his secret tax. You know the one. It was the secret tax the prime minister updated the news media about on June 28. It was the one first mentioned two years ago when the government announced it would work with the industry to set new standards for cleaner fuel for cars and for home heating oils.
Some people think it makes good sense for the government and the industry to work together to set these new standards. There is no point in government setting standards that the industry cannot achieve. And nobody is saying that the industry cannot improve the cleanliness of its products. The only problem is that it takes time to work it through. There are a lot of people needing to discuss this.
And that is why it could be some time in 2020 that some standards can be set. It took the Harper government over ten years of supposed discussions until 2015 and Canadians never did hear of any results.
But Chuckles is not happy with the delays when the shoe is on the other foot. He says that if he is elected in 2019, he will scrap any standards for cleaner fuels. He will also scrap the liberal government carbon tax that the government takes from the fuel producers and rebates to the public.
In his letter Chuckles demands that the government tell him how much the new standards will cost—even though they have not been set yet. It is assumed he wants to know in case he has a chance to also cancel that charge. He is already upset with the four-cent carbon tax on a litre of gasoline that consumers pay and get back in an annual rebate. He is sure that the new standards, when set, will add another four cents per litre to the cost of gasoline. He might just be guessing.
It is not that Chuckles does not have a plan to help save our world. It just seems to be secret.
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Copyright 2019 © Peter Lowry
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