The New Brunswick government says the goal to combat climate change can be achieved without a direct tax to the consumer.
“We're going to take a part of gas and fuel taxes and we're going to invest that money into programs and initiatives toward combating climate change,” says New Brunswick Environment Minister Serge Rouselle.
The official opposition, which is against a carbon tax of any kind, is calling the Liberal plan a deflection that will eventually impact the taxpayer
“Going into an election year they don't want to face a carbon tax increase, so shove it into a gas tax, make it kind of just go away, they get flexibility at increasing it at random down the road,’ says New Brunswick PC Leader Blaine Higgs.
Green Party Leader David Coon says he doesn't believe Ottawa will even approve the plan.
“The vast majority of Canadian population are subject to carbon pricing now and other provinces will expect a level playing ground across the country and this certainly doesn't sound like that,” says Coon.
The New Brunswick government says it will follow Ottawa's plan for a carbon tax on industry
“We want to combat climate change respecting our reality and our economy, so what we're doing, we're going to achieve our goal that we have to go against climate change, at the same time respecting the reality of the province,” says Rouselle.
The bill will be tabled Thursday morning.
With files from CTV Atlantic’s Nick Moore.
