Cutting taxes for rural home heating

Many governments outside Canada have heard the pleas for relief and have reduced fuel taxes - the Trudeau government should do the same

About one in 10 Canadians, including many residents in Wellington-Halton Hills, rely on heating oil or propane to heat their homes.

Many farmers in Ontario rely on propane to heat their livestock barns and dry grains to prevent rot.

For these Canadians, heating with oil or propane is expensive. Normally, it costs three or four times more to heat with oil or propane than it does with natural gas or other alternatives.

But the global energy crisis has increased the cost of these fuels even beyond these high levels. As a result, many rural residents using these fuels are facing heating bills in excess of $4,000 this winter.

For these rural residents, there are no alternatives and there will not be for years to come. These residents would have switched years ago to natural gas or other alternatives if they were viable.

Canadians are already feeling inflationary pressures elsewhere. In September, year-over-year grocery prices rose by more than 11 per cent – the sharpest increase observed since 1981. Year-over-year inflation also rose by 7 per cent.

The rising cost of living is really starting to bite.

Despite pleas from rural residents for help, the Trudeau government has decided to continue to increase the carbon tax on home heating, a tax that will cost rural residents upwards of $500 this winter. Adding to the burden, the HST is applied on the carbon tax.

For many rural households and farm families, the federal climate action incentive payment doesn’t offset the cost of the carbon tax.

The federal government should suspend the federal carbon tax for oil and propane heat. No Canadian should go cold this winter because they can’t afford to heat their home.

It doesn’t have to be this way. Canada is the only G7 country to have raised fuel taxes during this period of record-high global fuel prices. Many governments outside Canada have heard the pleas for relief from record high energy prices and reduced fuel taxes.

The federal government should do the same.