The premier is not backing down on his fight to have Ottawa reconsider the impact its new Clean Fuel Regulations will have on Newfoundland and Labrador.
The federal government is now charging the Carbon Tax, and providing rebate cheques to residents to help offset some of the financial burden, but Premier Andrew Furey says the Clean Fuel Regulations are a different matter and they stand to have a dramatic impact on Newfoundlanders and Labradorians.
It’s something he impressed on his counterparts from across the country during Council of the Federation meetings in Manitoba this week.
He says this province is unique in that fuel prices are regulated.
He says the Clean Fuel Regulations will have a disproportionate impact on Atlantic Canadians, and to date, he has not received a satisfactory response from the federal minister to his concerns.
Furey says the Parliamentary Budget Officer has indicated that the tax will result in a one percent hit to the GDP.
Put another way, says Furey, an 80-year-old in Newfoundland and Labrador will be paying three times as much as a similar 80-year-old in Quebec or Manitoba. “That is not fair,” says Furey, “I just think it’s an incredible ask, and unfair in a federation, to expect that people of Newfoundland and Labrador bear three times the burden.”