Say what you want about NWT MP Michael McLeod but unlike some politicians in the North, more often than not he will answer media questions and defend his positions.
Whether it be enjoying a victory lap earlier this month after being part of a chorus of Northern voices who pushed his own his leader, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, into retreat on the Liberal government’s sneaky and last-minute gun bill amendment. Or facing down the awkward spectacle – mid-election campaign – of said-leader’s previously unrevealed history of donning blackface for parties and talent shows, McLeod is no shrinking violet.
His stance on the carbon tax is no exception. The tax is quickly becoming controversial in the territory, particularly outside of Yellowknife, where energy costs are higher and furnaces burn longer, but McLeod is not afraid to step into the fray.
“I’ve seen the resistance with some of the elected leaders who were raising concerns,” McLeod told NNSL Media last week.
“The challenge in dealing with climate change is a lot of people think it is to construct turbines and introduce geothermal plants or biofuel. But the biggest challenge that I’m seeing is to convince people to give up the most convenient source of energy, which is oil.”
MLAs are threatening a revolt after Ottawa demanded the territory scrap its rebate on home heating fuel ahead of yet another increase to the carbon tax April 1. The NWT has had a carbon tax since 2019, which has increased every year since its inception, and will go up by $15 a tonne of greenhouse gas in April instead of the usual $10 a tonne, just in time for the much-forewarned recession and after a year in which NWT residents have borne burden to some of the highest increases to the cost of living ever recorded.
The nearly eight per cent increase in shelter costs recorded in Yellowknife over the past year was driven largely by a 49.7 per cent increase in fuel oil. Our reward will be an additional tax this year starting at 17 cents a litre for diesel, 12 cents for natural gas and 10 cents for propane. By 2030, those carbon taxes will increase to 45 cents for diesel, 32 cents for natural gas and 26 cents for propane.
Residents do receive carbon tax offsets but under the GNWT’s latest proposal, not all the carbon taxes collected will be returned nor will they be distributed fairly, because while everybody gets the offsets, not everyone in the territory pays for the home heating fuel that will now be taxed. Businesses, schools, government buildings and other institutional facilities won’t get a fuel rebate either, meaning costs will be passed on to consumers and taxpayers.
To date, the urgency to move away from fossil fuels has not been met with an urgency to provide an easy and cost-effective alternative. The GNWT’s Electric Vehicle Needs Assessment and Forecast, released in October 2020, essentially admits there is no chance the sale of electric vehicles in the territory will be able to accommodate the Liberals’ insistence that 30 per cent of new vehicle sales in country be electric by 2030, predicting the figure could be as low as 2.9 per cent. It notes as of spring 2020 exactly 10 plug-in electric vehicles were registered in the territory. Ten!
The assessment also proposes a charging station corridor extending from Fort Smith to Enterprise and from the NWT border to Yellowknife but obliquely avoids mentioning the rest of the territory. The federal government says it will ban the sale of all internal combustion-motored vehicles by 2035, so Fort Simpson, I guess it’s back to dog teams for you.
Meanwhile, other than a few solar arrays and heat recovery systems for buildings, no serious attempt has been made to get communities in the territory off diesel. Trudeau promised during the 2019 election to get all Indigenous communities off diesel and onto clean, “affordable energy” by 2030. I’ll still be in my 50s in 2030, so as the old warning goes, time is nigh.
So what is this about then if we’re not ready for the pressing green revolution and are being priced out of existence? Symbolism? The ol’ “let’s lead by example” cheer? McLeod says the North is in a “climate crisis” and many will agree but other Canadians are not spending a thousand bucks a month on heating bills.
One may admire his resolve to push against the headwinds of discontent, but some might call it a reckless zeal that ignores the financial hardships Northerners are facing with record inflation after two years of pandemic hardship.
It’s as if we’ve been put to water in a leaky boat on a raging river while being urged to power ahead toward the roar of unseen rapids around the bend, while the federal government’s biggest concern is that the boat comes installed with an electric motor.