Questions and answers (?) re GST being charged on Carbon Tax i House of Commons April 13

Taxation Oral Questions April 13th, 2017 / 11:50 a.m.

Conservative
Mark Warawa Langley—Aldergrove, BC

Mr. Speaker, a new report reveals that the Prime Minister will take $130 million out of Alberta and B.C. this year by charging GST on top of their provincial carbon taxes. It is shocking. That is $130 million in federal taxes, despite the Prime Minister's promise that carbon pricing would be revenue neutral for the federal government. It is yet another broken promise that will take more money out of the pockets of hard-working Canadians.

Will the Prime Minister stop increasing taxes, keep his promises, and immediately eliminate this unfair tax on a tax?
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Bill Morneau Minister of Finance Liberal

Mr. Speaker, it is important to consider the actions we have taken on taxes. We lowered taxes on middle-class Canadians. That is the very first thing we did. We are committed to tax fairness. That means we are going to think about Canadian families first. We are going to continue with measures that are going to help families so we can have a better economy. We know that works.

What we are seeing with the changes we put in place is that our economy is becoming more resilient. We are seeing more jobs. Behind those jobs, families are being more successful. This is what we are working toward in making our economy better.
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Mel Arnold North Okanagan—Shuswap, BC Conservative

Mr. Speaker, the Liberals are adding bigger deficits, and Canadians are being taxed deeper and deeper in debt.

The Prime Minister claimed that revenue from his carbon tax would stay in the provinces and territories where it was collected, yet the GST on carbon tax goes to Ottawa.

When will the Prime Minister get his story straight, come clean with Canadians, and not tax a tax to pay for his out-of-control spending?
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Bill Morneau Minister of Finance Liberal

Mr. Speaker, we want to be clear that what we are working toward in all of the efforts we put forward is improving the lives of middle-class Canadians and making our economy stronger. As we think about taxes, we are thinking about how we can lower the impact on middle-class Canadians, so we can have a more optimistic sense of what they can achieve. That is helping to turn around our economy. We have more jobs being created and we have a future that looks brighter as a result of the actions we have taken in this regard, in all of our measures.