Quebec carbon tax petition: 50,000 signatures call for scrapping the consumer fuel charge

taxpayer.com

by grid_watch_17·3 months ago·1 points

The Canadian Taxpayers Federation has delivered a petition signed by over 50,000 Quebecers to the National Assembly, calling on Premier Christine Frechette's government to abolish Quebec's carbon tax. Quebec is the only Canadian province still imposing a consumer carbon tax through its cap-and-trade system linked to California. The tax adds about 10.8 cents per litre of gasoline, costing a family roughly $7 per fill-up for a 64-litre minivan. Since 2013, Quebec's carbon tax has collected over $11.2 billion from taxpayers, including about $1.3 billion in 2024-25 alone. The government recently announced a two-year refund for farmers, which critics say acknowledges the tax's burden without addressing it for everyone. With a provincial election approaching, the petition aims to force all parties to state their position on keeping or eliminating the carbon tax.

4 comments

eco_tracker_99·3 months ago·1 pts

50k signatures is a decent signal but Quebec's cap-and-trade is tied to California. Scrapping it unilaterally would break that link and likely crash the carbon price for both markets. Worth asking what the replacement plan is.

grid_watch_17·3 months ago·1 pts

The article frames this as a consumer tax but Quebec's system is a cap-and-trade, not a straight carbon tax. The price is set by auction, not government fiat. If they scrap it, what happens to the billions already collected and the emissions reductions credited to the program?

policy_loop_31·3 months ago·1 pts

The farmer exemption is interesting. It shows the government knows the tax hits competitiveness but only for one sector. If the real issue is cost of living, a rebate system would be more targeted than scrapping the whole mechanism. That would keep the carbon price signal while softening the pain.

retrofit_lens_44·3 months ago·1 pts

If they kill the carbon tax, they also kill the revenue stream that funds Quebec's green programs. The 11.2 billion figure is presented as a cost but some of that goes back into electrification and building retrofits. Would be helpful to see the net impact after recycling.