Weeks before the Prime Minister dissolved Parliament, cabinet organized an unusual pre-election poll on whether the Supreme Court’s carbon tax ruling was popular with voters..“Several participants felt the decision set a dangerous precedent which they interpreted as allowing the federal government to levy taxes on provinces without their expressed consent,” said a pollsters’ report dated June 4..Prime Minister Justin Trudeau called the election August 15..Poll findings came from focus groups with Alberta voters in an effort to “explore the dimensions and drivers of public opinion on the most important issues facing the country,” wrote researchers with The Strategic Counsel..On March 24, in a 6-3 ruling, the Supreme Court upheld the federal carbon tax as constitutional..Voters recalled “the decision had not been unanimous and that there had been a strong dissenting opinion,” said the report..“Some viewed this as an attempt by the federal government to levy additional taxes on Western provinces..“Others were concerned the carbon pricing system would unfairly discriminate against farmers and Canadians who reside in areas of the country which experience colder temperatures on average.”.In 2018, parliament passed a bill that capped the carbon tax at the equivalent of 12¢ per litre of gasoline yet allowed cabinet to arbitrarily increase the levy..On December 11, 2020, cabinet then said it would incrementally raise the tax 240% to the equivalent of an extra 40¢ per litre of gasoline as well as 27¢ more per litre of propane, 34¢ per cubic metre of natural gas, 44¢ for aviation fuel and an extra 47¢ per litre for diesel..“All it does is to require persons to pay for engaging in specific activities that result in the emission of greenhouse gases,” Supreme Court Chief Justice Richard Wagner wrote in a majority decision..“The Act leaves individual consumers and businesses free to choose how they will respond, or not, to the price signals.”.However, three judges were in opposition and wrote the Act was a clear intrusion in provincial jurisdiction and gave cabinet excessive powers to raise the tax at any time..“When an Act endows a select few with the power to rewrite and thus re-engineer a law which affects virtually every aspect of individuals’ daily lives and provincial industrial, economic and municipal activities, it goes too far,” wrote Quebec Justice Suzanne Côté..The ruling ran contrary to previous judgments handed down by lower courts. In 2019, the Ontario Court of Appeal upheld the Act in a 4-1 decision, while the Saskatchewan Court of Appeal upheld the Act in a 3-2 ruling and the Alberta Court of Appeal struck it down 4-1.
