British Columbia has introduced and passed legislation in a single day that puts an end to the consumer carbon tax in the province, with Premier David Eby saying it will save 17 cents per litre at the pumps.
Eby’s NDP government introduced the bill on March 31, spending the day pushing it through to legislation under “accelerated consideration.”
The province’s carbon tax is set to end on April 1, the same day the federal consumer carbon tax is also set to drop to zero through a directive from Prime Minister Mark Carney.
“We’ve had a carbon tax for a long time, supported on a consensus basis across the legislature. It’s helped us reduce emissions. Our economy has continued to grow, but the policy has run its course,” Eby said during a March 31 news conference.
“British Columbians do not support it. They don’t want it. They don’t want to see it. And we’re removing it.”
Eby said the carbon tax had become a “toxic” issue in the province, blaming criticism of the tax by the B.C. and federal Conservative parties.
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B.C. was the first province to introduce a carbon tax in 2008, aiming to put a price on carbon pollution. Ottawa brought in a federal carbon tax in 2019, which applied to provinces that did not have a carbon pricing system in place.
With an increase in inflation and the cost of living in recent years, the federal Conservative Party started to call on Ottawa to “axe the tax,” saying it contributed to increased costs for essentials such as food and fuel.
National polls also suggest a collapse in support for the carbon tax. A Leger poll conducted in January found 64 percent of Canadians supported an “immediate end” to the carbon tax.
Carney had first promised to eliminate the consumer carbon tax during his Liberal Party leadership campaign, following through on that pledge on March 14, after his first meeting with cabinet.
After Carney committed to dropping the carbon tax to zero, Eby said his province would eliminate the tax.
Eby told reporters on April 1 that said that residents would “be seeing savings of 17 cents at the pump” as the impact of the tax’s repeal set in over the coming days.
The decision will leave a $199 billion hole in the provincial budget, and the government said it will be cutting programs to make up the shortfall. One of those programs is the carbon action tax credit, a quarterly payment sent to B.C. residents to “offset the impacts of the consumer carbon tax.”
The government said a final payment will be made in April.
It also said it would be looking at programs under the Clean B.C. climate action initiative to address the budget shortfall.
Opposition Reaction
Conservative Party leader John Rustad claimed credit for the consumer tax’s demise in the legislature, saying the government changed its stance on the policy “due to political pressure” from the Opposition.
”The premier finally has admitted that, in terms of how difficult it is, and how challenging it is for people in British Columbia,” he said.
Rustad called Eby’s policy reversal “an amazing flip-flop, worthy of an Oscar,” and asked if the government would commit to removing the industrial levy too.
Eby responded by saying, “putting a carbon price on big polluters encourages them to adopt technologies to reduce emissions.”
The B.C. Green Party, which has signed a confidence agreement with the NDP government, said it was against the move to eliminate the tax. The party has two sitting MLAs.
”This government has not shared any information on how they plan to cut emissions, how they will save costs for families who will no longer receive the rebate or how progress on climate action will continue,” Green Party MLA Rob Botterell said during the debate. “There is no plan to deal with the loss of billions of dollars that are already accounted for in the budget.”
The average B.C. family would have paid approximately $410 in carbon tax in 2025-26, the government said. Businesses will continue to pay carbon tax under the province’s output-based carbon pricing system.
Federal Consumer Carbon Tax
Eby’s move follows Ottawa’s decision to cut the consumer carbon tax on March 14.
As parliament was prorogued until March 24 at the request of the former Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, the Liberals were not able to introduce legislation to halt the tax. Carney instead signed a directive to cut the consumer carbon tax to zero. Carney has vowed to keep the industrial carbon tax in place.
The federal consumer carbon tax was scheduled to increase on April 1 by $15 to $95 per tonne. When the tax was introduced in 2019, it was set at $20 per tonne of greenhouse gas emissions. The tax was set to increase each year until reaching $170 per tonne in 2030.
The federal Conservatives have said they would remove the carbon tax on both consumers and industry.
