NB likely won’t lean on carbon tax to offset tax cuts
FREDERICTON — After months of toying with the idea of a carbon tax policy, the government of New Brunswick seems to be backtracking.
According to CBC, Finance Minister Victor Boudreau offered his strongest statement yet that his Liberal government won’t follow B.C. down the carbon tax path. "I would say the likelihood of the carbon tax is pretty slim," he told CBC last week.
The New Brunswick government issued a discussion paper earlier this year that called for lower income taxes, paid for by implementing a carbon tax.
The plan was assailed by critics like the Atlantic Provinces Trucking Association (APTA), which argued that carbon taxes would force transport companies to pay a disproportionate amount of the cost as well as make the regional economy less competitive.
Boudreau said the Department of Finance is currently looking at how tax cuts can be achieved without bringing in alternate revenue sources.
Nova Scotia also flirted with a carbon tax, but Premier Rodney MacDonald nixed the idea just before the recent federal election.
Have your say
This is a moderated forum. Comments will no longer be published unless they are accompanied by a first and last name and a verifiable email address. (Today's Trucking will not publish or share the email address.) Profane language and content deemed to be libelous, racist, or threatening in nature will not be published under any circumstances.