Premier Doug Ford has written to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau asking for an urgent first minister’s meeting on the federal carbon tax.
In the two-page letter, Ford points out that the recent 23 per cent increase in the carbon tax has led to a sharp rise in gas prices across the province and making “everything from groceries to home heating more expensive.”
Similar letters requesting a first minister’s meeting have also been sent by premiers in Newfoundland and Labrador, New Brunswick, Alberta, and Saskatchewan
“I’ve been in constant communication on a daily basis with a number of premiers, we aren’t happy about it to say the least,” he told reporters on Friday during an unrelated announcement in Ottawa. “He needs to sit down with us.”
While Ford has joined the growing chorus of premiers railing against carbon pricing, it was his decision to scrap the previous cap-and-trade system in Ontario that led to the implementation of the federal program – a point that was brought up in questioning but one he failed to address directly.
“They should get rid of this, totally. The carbon tax drives up the cost of everything.”
The Ford government has implemented their own carbon pricing scheme in Ontario, one that charges industrial polluters $65 a tonne.