Premier R.J. Simpson wants the NWT to get an exemption on paying the carbon tax. Conservative MP Bob Zimmer also thinks so.
Zimmer, the Shadow Minister for Northern Affairs and Arctic Sovereignty, tried to have an emergency debate in the House of Commons to talk about it on Monday in a request to Speaker Greg Fergus, but it didn’t happen.
In an interview with NNSL Media, Zimmer said the clock ran out.
“It was a procedural situation,” he said. “The way it goes, you make a request and you get one minute to make your case, but I wasn’t able to because time ran out.”
In an earlier interview with NNSL Media, Simpson said the carbon tax was “unfair to the North”.
“The rest of Canada was allowed to build its infrastructure without a carbon tax and we didn’t have that benefit, but now we’re expected to do so under a different set of rules,” he said on Dec. 7.
The carbon tax is designed to wean people off of fossil fuels, but several MLAs in the 19th Legislative Assembly, most notably former Nunakput MLA Jackie Jacobson, said the tax is doing more harm than good. More than one MLA in the previous assembly stated that the NWT just doesn’t have enough green energy for residents to make the transition.
“The NWT wanted to do it their own way and control the rebate (on home heating fuel) residents got, but the federal government basically said they had to cut it or take on our plan,” said Zimmer. “Other parts of the country have been exempted, but the North can’t get one and that’s not fair. The NWT wanted to be in charge and they’ve been told ‘Sorry, no more rebate for you’.”
One of the ideas that has been thrown around by the federal government as a way to help is the use of heat pumps, which are powered by electricity.
Zimmer said that’s a great idea in theory, but they’re mostly untested in the North.
“All they’ve done is promise heat pumps, but the price to buy and install those is horrendous,” he said. “They also don’t work in the dead cold of winter.”
Zimmer is confident, though, that more public pressure will see things change.
“Jackie and I have been fighting for an exemption and it needs to happen,” he said. “The prime minister exempted other parts of the country, but he’s saying there will be no more exemptions. The tax is punitive and we need to keep telling him that.”
A spokesperson for NWT MP Michael McLeod said he wouldn’t be able to make comment for this story as of press time.