ÐÇ¿Õ´«Ã½

Politics

    • Liberals rebrand Canada's carbon tax rebate

    Share

    The federal government is rebranding the carbon tax rebate.

    Previously known as the Climate Action Incentive Payment, the Liberals are now calling it the "Canada Carbon Rebate."

    The news of the new name for the existing rebate program was first broken via a Finance Canada press release touting the amount Canadians will be reimbursed this year. It was subsequently announced by a series of ministers in Ottawa on Wednesday.

    The change does not come with any adjustments to how the federal fuel charge system and corresponding refund actually works. 

    "The name was updated to the Canada Carbon Rebate to clarify its function, and make its meaning and relationship to the carbon pricing system more intuitive for Canadians," reads a government press release.

    Conceding that the previous name was difficult to understand or connect to the carbon tax plan, ministers said Wednesday they felt there was room for improvement when it came to how they communicated about the "complex" issue of carbon pricing and the Liberals' "revenue neutral" approach.

    "If we can speak the language that people speak because people say the words 'carbon,' they say the words, 'rebate,' right? And if we can speak that language that's important, so people understand what's going on here," said Labour Minister Seamus O'Regan. 

    The pollution pricing program and corresponding rebate system has been in effect since 2019. It applies a levy on greenhouse gas emissions, making it more expensive to burn fossil fuels, in an effort to encourage Canadians to change their habits.

    The rebates are given to Canadians through direct deposit or cheque every three months, in provinces where the federal backstop system applies.

    Starting in April, a family of four will receive "Canada Carbon Rebates" of:

    • $1,800 in Alberta ($450 quarterly);
    • $1,200 in Manitoba ($300 quarterly);
    • $1,120 in Ontario ($280 quarterly);
    • $1,504 in Saskatchewan ($376 quarterly);
    • $760 in New Brunswick ($190 quarterly);
    • $824 in Nova Scotia ($206 quarterly);
    • $880 in Prince Edward Island ($220 quarterly); and,
    • $1,192 in Newfoundland and Labrador ($298 quarterly).

    Talks of a rebrand have been circling on the Hill since MPs got back to the capital last month, aafter Prime Minister Justin Trudeau faced months of political heat last fall for advancing select carbon tax carve-outs.

    This year's rebate amounts reflect the reduced revenue coming as a result of the temporary pause of the fuel charge on deliveries of home heating oil that came into effect in November.

    During Wednesday's press conference, the Liberals equated Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre's ardent opposition to the carbon tax to axing these payments to families.

    Instead of charging back during question period, Poilievre focused his questions on the government's mismanagement of the ArriveCan application and what he called Environment Minister Steven Guilbeault's "war on cars," referring to the minister’s recent declaration that the federal government will stop investing in new road infrastructure.

    Last month Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland pointed to the at-times nondescript direct deposits that land in Canadians' bank accounts, and said that "Canadians have the right to know what they're getting."

    Now, while vowing their climate plan is working, Guilbeault said Wednesday that the Liberals are working with financial institutions to "make sure that it's labelled properly so that people actually know what it is."

    Reacting to the rebrand, senior energy strategist at Greenpeace Canada Keith Stewart said he was glad to see the government give the program a name that better describes what it is.

    "I didn't know what the Climate Action Incentive Payment was and I work on climate policy for a living," he said in an emailed comment to CTV News. "I'll bet that once people see that line on their bank statement, they'll think twice about the nonsense being spread by many Conservative politicians."

    The Canadian Taxpayers Federation chalked the move up to "lipstick on a pig," noting the carbon price is rising to 17 cents per litre as of April 1.

    "Trudeau's real problem isn't that Canadians don't know what his government is doing, Trudeau's real problem is that Canadians know his carbon tax is making life more expensive," said CTF federal director Franco Terrazzano in a statement. 

    IN DEPTH

    Opinion

    opinion

    opinion Don Martin: Gusher of Liberal spending won't put out the fire in this dumpster

    A Hail Mary rehash of the greatest hits from the Trudeau government’s three-week travelling pony-show, the 2024 federal budget takes aim at reversing the party’s popularity plunge in the under-40 set, writes political columnist Don Martin. But will it work before the next election?

    opinion

    opinion Don Martin: How a beer break may have doomed the carbon tax hike

    When the Liberal government chopped a planned beer excise tax hike to two per cent from 4.5 per cent and froze future increases until after the next election, says political columnist Don Martin, it almost guaranteed a similar carbon tax move in the offing.

    CTVNews.ca ÐÇ¿Õ´«Ã½

    Quebec Premier François Legault is calling on the Bloc Québécois to topple the Trudeau government next Wednesday and trigger a federal election.

    A 29-year-old Quebec woman is facing a first-degree murder charge in the death of a five-year-old boy southwest of Montreal.

    Canada

    World

    Politics

    Health

    • Manitobans are getting another reminder of how long wait times are for diagnostic images.

    • Supervised injection sites are saving the lives of drug users everyday, but the same support is not being offered to people who inhale illicit drugs, the head of the BC Centre for Excellence in HIV/AIDS says.

    Sci-Tech

    Entertainment

    Business

    Lifestyle

    Sports

    • Vancouver Canucks goalie Thatcher Demko says he's been working his way back from a rare lower-body muscle injury since being sidelined in last season's playoffs.

    • Toronto Blue Jays shortstop Bo Bichette returned to the 10-day injured list Thursday due to a right middle finger fracture.

    • Veteran Winnipeg Blue Bombers linebacker Adam Bighill said Thursday that he will undergo season-ending surgery on his left knee.

    Autos

    • Video of a brazen daylight auto theft which shows a suspect running over a victim in a stolen luxury SUV has been released by police west of Toronto.

    • The plant was expected to produce batteries for a million electric vehicles a year. Once up and running, it was supposed to create hundreds of permanent jobs in a small southeastern Ontario municipality. But two years later, spending on the construction of the Umicore plant has been delayed in what the company calls a "significant worsening of the EV market context."

    • A Winnipeg man is asking for help after a classic car that has been a part of his family since the 1950s was stolen from his garage.

    Local Spotlight

    Paleontologists from the Royal B.C. Museum have uncovered "a trove of extraordinary fossils" high in the mountains of northern B.C., the museum announced Thursday.

    The search for a missing ancient 28-year-old chocolate donkey ended with a tragic discovery Wednesday.

    The Royal Canadian Mounted Police is celebrating an important milestone in the organization's history: 50 years since the first women joined the force.

    It's been a whirlwind of joyful events for a northern Ontario couple who just welcomed a baby into their family and won the $70 million Lotto Max jackpot last month.

    A Good Samaritan in New Brunswick has replaced a man's stolen bottle cart so he can continue to collect cans and bottles in his Moncton neighbourhood.

    David Krumholtz, known for roles like Bernard the Elf in The Santa Clause and physicist Isidor Rabi in Oppenheimer, has spent the latter part of his summer filming horror flick Altar in Winnipeg. He says Winnipeg is the most movie-savvy town he's ever been in.

    Edmontonians can count themselves lucky to ever see one tiger salamander, let alone the thousands one local woman says recently descended on her childhood home.

    A daytrip to the backcountry turned into a frightening experience for a Vancouver couple this weekend.

    If you take a look to the right of Hilda Duddridge’s 100th birthday cake, you’ll see a sculpture of a smiling girl extending her arms forward.

    • In one of the final speeches he makes before the provincial election campaign period formally begins, Premier David Eby promised a gathering of B.C.'s mayors that he would continue to work closely with them if he's returned to government, but didn't make any last-minute spending announcements.

    • The Red Bridge, a historic landmark in Kamloops, B.C., was completely destroyed by fire early Thursday morning.

    • Homicide investigators are renewing their call for witnesses to the June 5 slaying of Wataru Kakiuchi in Vancouver.

    • Students across York Region will once again see uniformed officers at school, however police and board officials say they will only be stopping by for the occasional safety presentation.

    • Police have identified the two men killed in an early Wednesday morning shooting at a park north of Toronto. York Regional Police (YRP) say officers were called to Bayview Park, near Bayview and Lowndes avenues in Keswick, Ont., just before 7:30 a.m. for a report of shots fired.

    • Toronto police homicide investigators are set to provide an update on Tuesday’s fatal double shooting in North York.

    • The Parole Board of Canada says a man who assaulted a young pregnant woman and left her for dead remains too dangerous to be released into the community.

    • A Calgary pharmacist has been suspended by the Alberta College of Pharmacy (ACP) after they found she had accessed a person's electronic health records (Netcare) without "any authorized purpose."

    • There was a unique performance of Handsome Alice’s production of Makambe Simamba’s Our Fathers, Sons, Lovers, and Little Brothers Saturday night at the Big Secret Theatre, when Simamba performed in front of an almost all-Black audience on Black Family Night.

    • Ottawa is on the road to new rules to crack down on unnecessary idling in 2025, despite concerns about a lack of enforcement, insufficient education for drivers and allowing idling in school zones.

    • Two teenage girls are facing assault charges and three other girls will be "facing consequences" under the Youth Criminal Justice Act following the assault of a girl at a Pembroke, Ont. school, according to police.

    • The University of Ottawa's special advisor on antisemitism says he has resigned following posts he made on social media celebrating the pager explosions in Lebanon this week.

    • Public services in Quebec are becoming dehumanized, warns Quebec Ombudsman Marc-André Dowd in his 2023-2024 annual report, which is filled with concrete examples.

    • Quebec Premier François Legault is calling on the Bloc Québécois to topple the Trudeau government next Wednesday and trigger a federal election.

    • Treasury Board President Anita Anand will take on the additional role of transport minister this afternoon, after Pablo Rodriguez resigned from cabinet to run for the Quebec Liberal leadership.

    • The mayor of Fort Saskatchewan apologized on Thursday for comments she made earlier this week about killing feral cats.

    • The Alberta government will provide $149 million for Jasper's recovery from a wildfire that burned one third of its townsite, the province announced on Thursday.

    • A 26-year-old man was killed in an impaired driving crash in Jasper National Thursday morning, RCMP say.

    • New Brunswick Premier Blaine Higgs has called for a provincial election. Voters will go to the polls on Oct. 21, as prescribed by the province's fixed-date election law.

    • Police are asking people to avoid the Dartmouth Commons area in Dartmouth, N.S., as they assist with a wildlife call for a bear.

    • Fourteen pharmacies in Nova Scotia will join the community pharmacy primary care clinic program this fall.

    • Shamattawa RCMP are searching for a missing six-year-old boy who hasn’t been seen since Wednesday morning.

    • After a soggy, chaotic few days in Manitoba, more severe thunderstorms could be on the way to parts of the province on Thursday.

    • Manitoba's ethics commissioner has found an NDP cabinet minister was in the wrong when he failed to disclose he had a business contract with the government, but he is not recommending a penalty.

    • Environment and Climate Change Canada (ECCC) has confirmed a tornado touched down Wednesday evening near Langbank, Sask.

    • Saskatchewan Premier Scott Moe's popularity has hit a two year low, according to a recent poll conducted by the Angus Reid Institute.

    • Outlook RCMP are responding to a serious collision on Highway 15 in the RM of Rudy, Sask. on Thursday morning.

    • BREAKING

      BREAKING

      New details have been shared about a missing family that was last seen on Sept. 1 in Kitchener, Ont.

    • Ontario ended the 2023-24 fiscal year with a nearly balanced budget, in part due to higher-than-expected revenue from international student tuition at colleges.

    • Almost three weeks into the school year and some families are still on waitlists for before and after school care and it’s exposing some major gaps in the education system.

    • Thomas Hamp says he believed secret police were out to kidnap, torture, and kill him when he fatally stabbed his girlfriend Emily Sanche in February of 2022.

    • A 14-year-old student who allegedly set her classmate on fire is facing a new charge.

    • Police have arrested and charged two women following an armed robbery at a store in Saskatoon Thursday morning.

    • One person is dead and another is in hospital with serious, life-threatening injuries after a crash involving a commercial and passenger vehicle on Highway 101 west of Timmins on Wednesday afternoon.

    • James Bay Ontario Provincial Police have charged four commercial vehicle drivers with impaired, including one who was hauling 36,000 kilograms of ammonia hydrate.

    • North Bay Police Service says one person has died following an industrial accident at the Ontario Northland Transportation Commission Rail Yard on Tuesday.

    • Damage is estimated around $500,000. Police said the investigation is in its early stages and more information will be provided when it becomes available.

    • A shooting early Wednesday morning is being investigated by London police after a man showed up at hospital with gunshot wounds — the catch, police don't know where the shooting happened.

    • The mother and brother of an 18-year-old who was shot and killed during a teen field party more than three years ago gave emotional victim impact statements on Wednesday.

    • Two men from Barrie have been charged after a deadly shooting at a park in Keswick on Wednesday.

    • A growing group of brides and wedding photographers from across the province say they have been taken for tens of thousands of dollars by a Barrie, Ont. wedding photographer.

    • Police closed an area in Orillia to investigate reports of a suspicious man walking with a gun Thursday morning.

    • An active investigation is underway on Ottawa Street, east of Kildare Road.

    • Windsor firefighters responded to a vacant building fire on Wednesday night.

    • St. Clair College and Alienware Gaming have teamed up to open the country’s first Alienware Gaming Lab at the college in the Esports Nexus Arena.

    • An agreement between First Nations and the British Columbia government will see thousands of homes made available in Vancouver at 40-per-cent below cost.

    • The Red Bridge, a historic landmark in Kamloops, B.C., was completely destroyed by fire early Thursday morning.

    • If the lead up to British Columbia's provincial election campaign is any indication of what’s to come, voters should expect the unexpected.

    • The Red Bridge, a historic landmark in Kamloops, B.C., was completely destroyed by fire early Thursday morning.

    • Animal protection officers in British Columbia have rescued three pit bulls – including one that gave birth to 10 puppies – from a rat-infested home in Kelowna.

    • More than a year after a missing Kamloops, B.C., woman’s body was found, her son has been arrested and charged with her murder, Mounties announced Friday.

    • A Lethbridge couple got a good reminder as to why you should keep your vehicle doors locked at all times.

    • Lethbridge residents who live near the police range can expect to hear plenty of shots fired Wednesday and Thursday.

    • The City of Lethbridge's encampment response team continues to see a rise in the number of people experiencing homelessness throughout the summer months.

    • North Bay Police Service says one person has died following an industrial accident at the Ontario Northland Transportation Commission Rail Yard on Tuesday.

    • Three northern Ontario residents are charged with drug trafficking after the vehicle they were in got stuck along a bush road off Highway 17 on Monday.

    • A 50-year-old man in the Sault has been charged following an assault on Saturday that involved the use of a hammer.

    N.L.

    Stay Connected
    Follow CTV News