Both the Liberals and Conservatives are claiming a win after the Parliamentary Budget Officer (PBO) released an updated report on the economic impacts of the federal carbon tax on Canadian households.
The new report, published Thursday, came to similar conclusions as past analysis, despite an error in findings released in 2022 and 2023, which inadvertently included the industrial carbon pricing system.
The average household where the federal carbon tax applies – which is most provinces except Quebec and British Columbia – will receive more money from the Canada Carbon Rebate than what they pay in the fuel levy and related GST, according to the PBO’s latest.
“Broadly speaking, our updated estimates (fiscal impact only) show larger net gains (lower net costs) for average households across income quintiles in backstop provinces compared to our March 2023 distributional analysis,” the PBO report says.
But when economic impacts are factored in, like loss of employment …