Low-income families in Alberta would be hit hard in their pocketbooks under federal Liberal Leader Stéphane Dion’s recent carbon tax scheme, said Premier Ed Stelmach yesterday.
“My greatest fear is for those who are on fixed income because your heating costs will go up, and with their grandkids, the fuel for their car will go up,” said Stelmach when asked by Metro about the carbon tax plan.
Dion, who has touted his carbon tax plan last week as a green shift for Canada, said it would collect $15.4 billion in new taxes from Canadian industries that produce high carbon emissions.
The cash generated from the new taxes would go straight to the consumers’ pockets in tax breaks as they are struggling with high energy costs, said Dion.
Stelmach says he doubts how Dion’s plans would work since Alberta government number-crunchers say giving industry huge tax burdens would only harm consumers.
“(This plan) is going to hurt agriculture, it’s going to hurt the manufacturing sector because, remember folks, we’re competing with countries around the world that don’t have the same rules that we are playing by,” said Stelmach.
“It’s going to diminish our global competition immensely.”
Prime Minister Stephen Harper said in a conference last week that Dion’s proposal would “screw everybody.”
–jeff.cummings@metronews.ca
