Majority of Quebecers think province should end carbon pricing, survey says

A man pumps gas in Montreal, Friday, March 4, 2022. (Graham Hughes/The Canadian Press)

Weeks after Prime Minister Mark Carney scrapped the federal consumer carbon levy, more than half of Quebecers want their province to follow suit and abolish its own price on carbon, a new poll says.

Published Tuesday, the Léger survey also found that a majority of Quebecers support building a pipeline across the province to transport oil or gas from Western Canada to international markets. The poll offers the latest evidence of shifting public opinion on environmental issues in Quebec, where there has long been a broad consensus in favour of carbon pricing and against pipelines.

Quebec has had some of the highest gas prices in the country since April, when Carney ended the consumer carbon levy that applied in most provinces. British Columbia quickly moved to end its own carbon tax as well, leaving Quebec as the sole province that remains fully committed to carbon pricing.

According to the survey conducted for Québecor media properties, 56 per cent of respondents believe Quebec should put an end to its cap-and-trade carbon-pricing scheme. That includes a majority of supporters for all major political parties in the province, except the left-leaning Québec solidaire. Another 28 per cent said the province should keep its price on carbon, while 15 per cent didn’t know or refused to answer.

An even larger majority – 68 per cent – said the cost of the carbon price should be clearly indicated on gas station receipts, which is not currently the case. The cap-and-trade system adds about 10 cents per litre to the price of gasoline.

The survey comes as Statistics Canada reports that lower gas prices drove inflation down across all provinces except Quebec in April. On Tuesday, the agency said the annual pace of inflation in Canada cooled to 1.7 per cent last month, down from 2.3 per cent in March, driven largely by the removal of the consumer carbon price. But in Quebec, the annual inflation rate rose 0.3 percentage points from March to 2.2 per cent in April.

According to the website GasBuddy.com, Quebec on Tuesday had the highest average gasoline price of all provinces except B.C., and had an average price more than 20 cents per litre higher than in Ontario.

In response, the Parti Québécois called on the government to reduce the “unfair gap in the price of gasoline” between Quebec and neighbouring provinces. Leader Paul St-Pierre Plamondon said the government has several options to reduce the disparity, including cutting the province’s fuel or sales taxes.

Quebec, he added, could also return some of the proceeds from the carbon market to taxpayers. Currently, the money goes to Quebec’s electrification and climate change fund, to be spent on programs that reduce emissions.

However, St-Pierre Plamondon said it would be costly to scrap Quebec’s cap-and-trade system, which is linked to California’s. “There are several options for harmonizing pump prices across provinces, but leaving the carbon market would be the least intelligent option from a cost-benefit perspective,” he said in a social-media statement.

The new survey also found that 55 per cent of respondents think it would be a good idea to relaunch a pipeline project that would cross Quebec to export oil or gas from Western Canada. Another 26 per cent said it would be a bad idea, while 19 per cent didn’t know or refused to respond.

Quebec Premier François Legault has repeatedly said there’s more openness to pipelines in the province since U.S. President Donald Trump began his tariff war. Speaking at the national assembly on Tuesday, Legault said the province could support an oil or gas pipeline if there are benefits for Quebecers, but said he would invest no public money in such a project.

“We’re not dogmatic. We’re OK with Quebec making money,” he said. “The world has changed.”

The poll surveyed 1,051 people between May 9-11 from Léger’s online panel. A margin of error cannot be assigned to panel surveys.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published May 20, 2025.

Maura Forrest, The Canadian Press