Conservative Party Leader Pierre Poilievre speaks during a rally in Ottawa on Sunday, March 24, 2024. Poilievre is requesting Prime Minister Justin Trudeau convene an emergency meeting with the country's premiers to discuss the federal carbon price. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Spencer Colby
OTTAWA – Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre is requesting that Prime Minister Justin Trudeau convene an emergency meeting with the country’s premiers to discuss the federal carbon price.
Poilievre circulated the letter today on social media following the $15-per-tonne increase to the consumer carbon price that kicked in on Monday.
He has spent the past month travelling across the country, including in the Greater Toronto Area, Atlantic Canada and British Columbia, hosting “axe the tax” rallies and vowing to scrap the policy.
Trudeau has pushed back on Poilievre’s assertion that the carbon price is adding financial stress to families gripped by an affordability crisis.
The prime minister says critics, including conservative premiers, are inflating the impact of the fuel levy and families receive quarterly rebates to help offset costs.
He dismissed calls from seven provincial premiers to pause the April 1 increase, including from Newfoundland and Labrador Premier Andrew Furey, the country’s lone Liberal provincial premier.
Furey also requested Trudeau convene an emergency meeting to discuss alternatives.
Trudeau has said the premiers complaining about the policy have yet to provide detailed plans on how else they would reduce greenhouse-gas emissions.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published April 2, 2024.
