NDP keeps carbon tax debate alive in the House with motion calling for home heating GST relief

NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh and his party kept the carbon pricing debate alive in the House of Commons Tuesday by advancing a motion calling for Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to permanently remove the GST off all forms of home heating.

It's an affordability-focused push the New Democrats have been making for months, but amid the current political firestorm the Liberals are facing over their recent carbon tax carve-out for home heating oil and doubling of the rural rebate top-up, attention on the issue has gained new traction.

Similar to Monday's failed Conservative motion calling for the three-year pause on the carbon price collected from home heating oil to be expanded to all forms of home heating, Singh's proposal is non-binding, meaning even if it passes, it won't force the government to act. 

Specifically, the NDP motion is calling for three things:

• Removing the GST from all forms of home heating;
• Making eco-energy retrofits and heat pumps free and easy to access for low-income and middle-class Canadians, regardless of energy source; and
• Financing these projects by putting in place a tax on the excess profits of big oil and gas corporations.

"Canadians continue to struggle with dramatic increases to the cost of living while Canada’s biggest corporations, including oil and gas corporations, post record profits," reads the motion in-part, sponsored by B.C. NDP MP Taylor Bachrach.

"[And] federal government programs aimed at supporting energy-efficient retrofits such as heat pumps are hard to access, especially for low-income Canadians … effective climate action must also address the very real affordability concerns of ordinary Canadians."

While the motion was debated for the majority of the sitting day Tuesday, it won't come to a vote until later in the week. Early indications are that it may be unlikely that the Conservative caucus will be reciprocating the support the NDP lent to their latest carbon tax motion.

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During debate in the House on Tuesday, Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre accused the New Democrats of performing "yet another flip-flop."

"Originally they wanted to quadruple the tax. Yesterday, they said they wanted to pause the tax. And today they won't take a position because they have omitted mention of the prime minister's quadrupling of the tax in to the motion," Poilievre said, before unsuccessfully trying to tack on an amendment to the motion.

"Now the question is, what are the Liberals and Conservatives going to do tomorrow? If the Conservatives, if Pierre Poilievre is serious about giving people a break, then he will support this motion tomorrow. He'll vote in favor of it. If he doesn't vote in favor of it, it'll show two things," Singh told reporters Tuesday.

"One, that the corporate controlled-Conservatives are too interested in protecting the profits of big oil and gas to support this motion, or two, they're so opposed to helping people do the right thing… that they're voting against a plan to help people lower their costs and fight the climate crisis." 

When pressed by CTV’s Power Play host Vassy Kapelos later on Tuesday, Singh would not say how much money the measure would save the average Canadian household.

In a back-and-forth kicking off question period earlier in the day, Trudeau called out Poilievre for his “divisive rhetoric” on the issue, and accused the Conservatives of failing to recognize that climate change is real.

“These are things that we've done right across the country. Only the Conservatives would think that taking serious action on climate change and supporting Canadians right across the country with affordability measures would be divisive,” he said.

The Senate also voted Tuesday to advance Bill C-234 — a private member’s bill by Conservative MP Ben Lobb — seeking further exemptions in the carbon price for certain fuels used in farming.

Namely, the bill would make changes to the Greenhouse Gas Pollution Pricing Act to include natural gas and propane as qualifying farming fuels exempt from the carbon tax.

If the Senate passes it, the bill would also scrap the carbon price to heat and cool buildings used for raising livestock or growing crops, as well as on grain drying and feed preparation.

But senators have been debating in recent weeks whether to amend the bill and continue charging the fuel price on natural gas and propane for heating and cooling of barns and greenhouses, a cost that farmers have said is untenable and unfair.

On Tuesday evening, the Senate voted to reject the proposed amendment and proceed to third reading of the bill, unamended, at its next sitting.

Farmers, experts, and senators have said the bill creates a carve-out in the carbon tax for those who should have had an exemption from the beginning.

“It’s the fairness that strikes me about this bill over and over again,” said Sen. Pat Duncan during debate in the upper chamber last week. “It’s fair to include the farmers who were left out and to correct this oversight.”

“Let’s remember that natural gas and propane are the cleanest burning fuels,” Duncan also said. “Will allowing this rebate and passing Bill C-234 make a tremendous difference to Canada reaching the climate change goals? I don’t think so. It will correct an oversight and be fair to all concerned.”

Lobb's bill has been before Parliament since 2022 and passed the House in March 2023. It still needs to clear third reading before becoming law.