Trudeau government wants higher carbon tax to fight wildfires, claim climate change is the cause

The Trudeau government continues to insist that wildfires in Canada are the direct result of climate change. This is despite indications that forest mismanagement, or even arson in some cases, could have played a role.

Trudeau has suggested that another hike in the carbon tax is going to help stop those fires, as though Canadians paying more for energy will ease the smoke grounding planes as far south as New York City and Washington, DC.

Despite Trudeau and his environmental minister's assertion that wildfires are simply another catastrophic consequence of the public refusal to due penance to the climate religion despite the fact that it's basically impossible to prove a causal relationship between climate change and wildfires.

The RCMP has been investigating arson fires that could have exploded into much larger conflagrations. And poor forest management, based on the misguided view that forests should suffer no human interference and will just stay healthy, pristine and fire-free without man's touch, is also a likely culprit. Many have claimed this as the cause in California's summer blazes as well.

In the House of Commons Monday, Environment and Climate Change Minister Steven Guilbeault tried to establish a clear link between climate change and the wildfires in Alberta, Quebec, and Nova Scotia, without evidence. The CBC, ever the adoring laptop of Trudeau and his minions, repeats the climate change claim. 

"Mr Speaker, 2016 was the worst year for forest fires in Alberta and already we're on the verge of surpassing this and we're on June 4th [with] the worst forest fires in the history of Nova Scotia," said Guilbeault during Question Period. This was in response to a query about why the Liberal government is poised to again raise the carbon tax at the gas pumps.

"It's only the beginning of June, Mr. Speaker, and what's the response from the Conservative Party of Canada? 'Let's make pollution free again. Let's allow the largest polluter in Canada to pollute as much as they want. Let's stop using climate change carbon pricing,'" he opined.

Guilbeault, who was a prominent Greenpeace activist and was arrested four times for his political stunts, was selected for his government post by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau because he knows how to repeat environmental talking points, not for his facility with facts and evidence. As much as Trudeau and Guilbeault want to believe it, carbon is not pollution; people who create carbon are not polluters. But Guilbeault kept repeating that mantra this week along with the insinuation that climate change is fanning the flames of wildfires.

In response to another question from Conservative MP Earl Dreeshen about why Canadians will soon be paying about 60 cents more for a liter of gas as a result of the latest carbon tax hike, Guilbeault returned to his wildfire rant.

"As I was saying earlier, Canadians are battling forest fires right across the country. It is likely going to be the worst year for forest fires in history. Just last week in this House the member for Red Deer-Mountain View rose to tell Canadians that climate change is normal."

"Mr Speaker, so it's not that [the Conservatives] don't care about climate change, it's not that they don't want to even understand it. They don't believe it's a problem so why have any plans to fight climate change? Why have any plans to help Canadians adapt to what is a changing climate as more and more Canadians will face the impacts of climate change."

On Wednesday, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau tweeted that claim as well: “We’re seeing more and more of these fires because of climate change. These fires are affecting everyday routines, lives and livelihoods, and our air quality. We’ll keep working – here at home and with partners around the world – to tackle climate change and address its impacts.”

That tweet was blasted by users in Community Notes, citing the many arson investigations that have been underway in Canada in recent years. 

The RCMP states that there fires in Nova Scotia were intentionally set. In May, charges were laid in Alberta for arson attacks that destroyed a church. That fire was set in September 2022. The CBC, ever the adoring lapdog of Trudeau and his minions, has added their support for the climate change theory. And US President Joe Biden said that was his contention as well—again with no proof.

This tweet was met with objections saying that anthropogenic climate change is not even widely believed among scientists at this point, who note that climate scientists believe the core issues of such politician-made claims are widely misunderstood.

A string of reports on RCMP investigations show that police are finding suspected arsonists all over Canada. And just as wildfires occur on a regular basis, so does arson. RCMP charged a 54-year-old woman from Glendon, AB with 32 counts of arson in 2021. She was suspected of being responsible for a raft of wildfires in northeast Alberta.

On Monday, Calgary police say arson was the cause of two brush fires in the city. Police evacuated the area upon discovering the blaze. In April, police arrested a man on ten counts of arson in the Cold Lake area of Alberta. RCMP in May arrested a woman for “intentionally” starting fires in the woods of Sooke, BC. In Grande Prairie, AB, the RCMP are saying blazes in and near the city were deliberately set by one or more arsonists.

Canada's climate change minister provides no facts to prove that wildfires are mysteriously caused by a change in the weather. He just says it and demands he be believed. Meanwhile, the RCMP continues to investigate arsons, and forest mismanagement is not even addressed as a cause.

Yet environmentalists have said they are prepared to spike trees and potentially kill loggers in order to stop deforestation, without even a glimmer of consideration that keeping forests near population centers intact could have negative impacts for fire management. 

The Trudeau government cannot say how Canada's carbon tax has done anything to "fight" climate change. All it has done is drastically increase the price of gas and home heating fuel, create inflationary pricing and regularly increase the cost of living for all Canadians. 

Those Canadians continue to use the same amount of gas and fuel to drive to work and heat their homes in winter because that's called life. It's ultimately just a tax grab enveloped in a large swathe of environmental rhetoric and mendacity. 

Even if Canadians stopped driving gas-powered automobiles and abandoned their houses to live in unheated caves with no air conditioning, it wouldn't make a dent in global greenhouse gas emissions – thanks to countries like China who don't follow the climate change rule book.

For the Trudeau government to raise the carbon tax as a result of forest fires would simply be a punitive move, and not one that will have any impact on decreasing wildfires. It's just another leap of illogic from a government that refuses to answer questions or face reality.