Trudeau government will HIKE carbon tax by 50 percent despite coronavirus nightmare

This tax hike was originally created two years ago and was scheduled to go into effect on April 1st.

The Liberal's Greenhouse Gas Pollution Pricing Act legislation mandates a 50 percent rise in the tax from 4.4¢ a litre to 6.6¢ a litre.

When Trudeau's Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland was asked about the tax hike, she said "I think our government has been very clear that this is a time where our first priority is protecting the health and safety of Canadians, and that’s what everyone here has been very focused on."

"We are thinking very carefully about our whole approach to what we are doing economically, both in terms of how we are supporting workers and businesses, and also what we are doing on the tax side” she added.

The carbon tax has long been a controversial in Canadian politics. In the most recent 2019 federal election, the Conservative Party ran on a platform of scrapping the tax.

Similarly, a number of premiers have called for the axing of the carbon tax: most notably, Doug Ford in Ontario and Jason Kenney in Alberta.