Houston continues fight with Feds over carbon tax, runs ad campaign

Nova Scotia’s Premier Tim Houston and the PC party is doubling down in the fight against the new federal carbon tax.

The PCs are releasing an anti-carbon tax ad campaign and spending $56,000 of taxpayer's money to get the message out.

Minister of Environment and Climate Change, Tim Halman, confirmed his department spent the money on a two-week ad campaign that will air on radio stations, in print, and online social media platforms.

Halman said the ad campaign aims to set the record straight on which level of government is responsible for implementing the carbon tax which will see Nova Scotians pay more for fuel when the tax is implemented on Saturday.

"What you have here is the government of Nova Scotia attempting to make sure residents have the correct information," said Halman. "The province isn't imposing this, it's the federal government who is imposing this."

Halman said if Nova Scotians had questions regarding the carbon tax, they should reach out to their federal member of parliament.

Opposition leaders say the ads are misleading and fail to mention that Nova Scotians will be getting rebate cheques, calling the ad campaign a misuse of public funds.

"(Houston) he's spending Nova Scotian's money to fool them," said Nova Scotia Liberal leader Zach Churchill. "The fact is that we had an alternative to the carbon tax in Nova Scotia, and he (Houston) scrapped it without even trying to renegotiate it and he triggered the carbon tax in Nova Scotia and now he's spending Nova Scotians hard earned dollars to try and tell them otherwise."

NDP leader Claudia Chender says the ads are political posturing and offer no real advice to help Nova Scotians navigate the new carbon tax.

"If the intent of this information or advertising is to inform, then it does a bad job, it doesn't tell Nova Scotians that they will be receiving a rebate, and it doesn't advise Nova Scotians on how and when those things will happen," said Chender.

The New Brunswick government is also running an anti-carbon tax ad campaign right now.

All three maritime premiers have been vocal against the carbon tax, and wrote a letter to the Prime Minister asking the federal government to delay the carbon tax citing high inflation.

"The federal government is fixated on taxing people more and we are fixated on actual meaningful solutions that will protect the planet and that's why we put our plan forward as to what was possible," said Houston.

Ottawa rejected the PC's "Better Than Carbon Tax" plan last summer because it lacked a carbon pricing plan and did not meet the Pan-Canadian approach to carbon pollution pricing for 2023-2030 said federal Environment Minister Steven Guilbeault.

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