this post was submitted on 02 Nov 2023
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The New Democrats say they will back the Conservatives on a motion to pull the carbon price off all home heating until after the next election.

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[–] SamuelRJankis 17 points 1 year ago (12 children)

In case anyone is wondering

Trudeau said the Liberals are increasing the maximum amount of funding towards the purchase and installation of a heat pump from $10,000 to $15,000. They will be doing this by adding up to $5,000 in "grant funding to match provincial and territorial contributions," which, according to a PMO release, would mean most households will be able to get their pump for free.

https://www.ctvnews.ca/politics/canada-doubling-carbon-price-rebate-rural-top-up-pausing-charge-on-heating-oil-trudeau-1.6618613

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago (10 children)

While not representing a majority of Canadians, there are people living in regions that get regularly cold enough for heat pumps to be inadequate. Which means running a standard electric furnace (expensive and inefficient) during the coldest months of the year. Which... is not ideal, especially for lower-income rural persons. (IE, most people living in these regions of Canada.)

The rebate is great, but there are persons for whom it is insufficient.

Do I think that's a good reason to remove the carbon tax from heating fuels? No, not really. (Assuming I understand how the tax works, it really isn't the burden people expect it to be. (You can debate about inefficiencies, but as far as manipulating economics to incentivize transfer away from fossil fuels without harming the general public, it's reasonably sound.)) But people do have legitimate concerns that shouldn't be trivially dismissed.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

The rebate is great, but there are persons for whom it is insufficient.

The whole principle of the rebate is that the average person within a province breaks even. So people in Saskatchewan are only competing with other Saskatchewaneans, not with Vancouverites.

And if you're polluting far more than the average person in your province, such that the rebate is grossly insufficient, even after figuring in the rural boost to the rebate?

Good.

Do better.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Maybe I'm misunderstanding, but I think perhaps you misread what I said (or I communicated poorly). I'm speaking about the funding incentive to purchase a heat pump. The carbon tax rebates, as you say, are designed to break even by or better for the majority of the population; I've got no issues with that. I was responding to the implication that a transition to electricity was trivial because households could purchase a heat pump for little to no cost. There are households for which the energy costs of resistive heating+heat pump are likely higher than their current heating costs, making this not the case. (Unless there are further rebates I don't know about for people who have a heat pump, beyond covering initial costs?)

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