Alberta Premier Danielle Smith Calls Carbon Pricing a Tax on Productivity
OTTAWA—Alberta Premier Danielle Smith is calling the federal carbon tax a “sin tax on productivity,” saying it is contributing to Canada’s declining economic prospects.
“I have a friend who described to me the carbon tax; her view of it is it’s essentially a sin tax on productivity. Isn’t that what it is, when you think about it?” Ms. Smith said at the annual Canada Strong and Free Network conference in Ottawa on April 12.
“It’s about limiting what you can do, what you can buy, what you can drive, what you can produce, what you can keep to yourself, what you can dream of accomplishing.”
The premier said federal government’s policies were “limiting the potential of people,” and referred to a recent Bank of Canada announcement that the country’s productivity had reached an emergency level. Speaking to an audience in Nova Scotia last month, the bank’s senior deputy governor Carolyn Rogers had referenced signs that read “In an emergency, break glass.”
Ms. Smith echoed the words of Ms. Rogers, saying, “It is past time to break the glass.”
“Bad economic policies and out-of-control spending from the Liberal-NDP coalition have broken and demoralized far too many Canadians,” she said.
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Ms. Smith, like several premiers across Canada, has been critical of the federal carbon tax for contributing to the ongoing cost-of-living crisis. The premiers have written letters to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau asking him to meet with them and discuss the recent 23 percent increase in the tax.
In a press conference following her speech, Ms. Smith said it was “insane” that the tax on fuel in Alberta was more than two times the cost of the gas itself. She also noted the federal NDP, as well as Alberta and Saskatchewan New Democrats, had come out against the “failed” tax.
“The reason it’s failed, is because it’s not achieving the outcome … are we seeing a reduction in emissions as a result of people paying more for gasoline and diesel and home heating? And the reason it’s not working is because there aren’t alternatives available yet,” she said.
Child Transition Policy
During her talk at the conference, Ms. Smith spoke about her government’s recent policies on child gender transition, which ban gender-altering surgery for children and require teachers to inform parents if their children want to change their pronouns. The premier said the policies are aimed at “supporting Alberta children as they navigate their journey of self-discovery.”
Ms. Smith said her government is going to provide adults who are transitioning the support they need, but when it comes to children, she wants to ensure they are protected from “making decisions that they are far too young to make, and that could prevent them from having children of their own.”
“I believe that the vast majority of parents love and support their children unconditionally,” Ms Smith said. “I do not subscribe to the notion that parents don’t have rights, that parents have ill intent, or that the parents cannot be trusted with information pertaining to their children.”
Ms. Smith cited the recent UK government-commissioned Cass Review, which found children may have been rushed to undergo gender transition, and that the evidence for the need of these procedures was “remarkably weak.”
Ms. Smith shared passages from the report that found the use of sex-changing hormones on youth presented “many unknowns” and that the rationale for early puberty suppression “remains unclear.”
