Kenney pitches carbon tax referendum bill
United Conservative Party leader has private member's bill
United Conservative Party Leader Jason Kenney wants to make it impossible for the Notley government to hike Alberta's carbon tax without a referendum.
Kenney plans to introduce a private member's bill Thursday which — if passed — would ensure all Albertans get to vote on any future increases in the carbon tax.
Blaise Boehmer, a spokesperson for the Official Opposition, likened the legislation to a taxpayer protection bill.
Kenney is expected to introduce the bill during Thursday's legislative sitting. The party is hopeful a vote will occur sometime during the current session of the legislature. Private member's bills, particularly from the opposition, rarely pass.
"This is a private member's bill that would require the current government to put any future carbon tax increases to a referendum," Boehmer said in an interview with CBC News on Thursday.
"And should the UCP be successful in the next election, their first act would be a repeal of the carbon tax, which would require any future governments to put any future carbon taxes to a referendum."
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Kenney has been staunchly opposed to the carbon tax since the NDP first announced plans for it.
He made scrapping the carbon tax the centrepiece of his successful campaign for a seat in Calgary-Lougheed late last year, and remains committed to repealing it if he becomes Alberta premier in 2019. The federal government has said it will impose a carbon tax on any province that doesn't introduce one.
Alberta's carbon tax came into effect Jan. 1, 2017, with carbon priced at $20 per tonne of emissions.
This January it increased to $30 per tonne. The carbon tax on a litre of gasoline is now 6.73 cents per litre, and 8.03 cents per litre on diesel fuel.
On natural gas, the most common fuel used for home heating in Alberta, the tax is now $1.517 per gigajoule. On propane the tax is now 4.62 cents per litre.