Ontario First Nations leaders are asking the Federal Court to exempt their communities from Canada's federal carbon tax.
First Nations sue over 'discriminatory' carbon tax — will Guilbeault resign? | National Post | Tasha Kheiriddin
December 1, 2023 - "A month after the federal government exempted home heating oil from its punitive carbon tax, another group is demanding a carve-out — and putting the government in a thorny position. The Chiefs of Ontario and Attawapiskat First Nation have filed a lawsuit against the federal government over what they allege is 'discriminatory and anti-reconciliatory application of the Greenhouse Gas and Pollution Pricing Act (GGPPA)' to First Nations.
"Their main arguments resemble those advanced by rural communities, notably a lack of options when it comes to fuel for things like transportation or industry. The twist is that while non-indigenous taxpayers get 90 per cent of charges refunded through tax rebates, this is not the case for First Nations members, because property and income on reserve are tax exempt, and most Indigenous people do not use the income tax system. Faced with this discrepancy, Ottawa promised to return 0.7 per cent of the total charges collected in Ontario to that province’s First Nations, but the chiefs say this number is arbitrary and inadequate....
"The chiefs are now demanding a judicial review of this policy — something they say would have been unnecessary if federal officials had bothered to engage with them.The chiefs’ claim is accompanied by an open letter to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, in which they characterize the fuel charge cost to First Nations citizens as .'another cash grab for Canada, removing several million dollars a year from those least responsible for the climate crisis'....
"Environment Minister Steven Guilbeault is now in the embarrassing position of defending a tax that hurts Indigenous people, while having given non-indigenous Canadians a break on their heating oil — all for political reasons. It also puts the minister in a no-win situation because of his pledge that, 'As long as I’m the environment minister, there will be no more exemptions to carbon pricing.' In other words: If the government doesn’t give First Nations a break, it’s breaking its promise on reconciliation. But if it does give them an exemption, the minister is breaking his promise not to allow additional carve-outs and should resign."
The chiefs’ lawsuit is just the latest assault on the government’s green energy policies. Last week, the government of Saskatchewan brought in Bill 151, which exempts SaskEnergy officials from federal punishment for defying federal law and gives the energy minister the power not to pay carbon tax. Saskatchewan Premier Scott Moe has vowed that on Jan. 1, 2024 the Crown corporation will not remit carbon tax on home heating fuel to Ottawa....
And then there’s Alberta. On Monday, Premier Danielle Smith’s government introduced a resolution that instructs governments and provincial utilities entities to ignore the federal government’s proposed Clean Electricity Regulations when they come into force “to the extent legally permissible.” The regulations would require Canada’s electricity grid to generate net zero emissions by 2035 — something Smith says is both impossible and undesirable in her oil-producing jurisdiction.
"With the carbon tax bleeding from a thousand cuts, and Canadians increasingly opposed to it, you would think the government would do the sensible thing, and put it on the scrapheap where it belongs. Then again, voters might just do that for them."
Chiefs of Ontario launch judicial review of Carbon Tax | APTN News | December 5,2023:
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