Natural resources minister defends carbon tax as provinces pile on

Natural Resources Minister Jonathan Wilkinson says provincial premiers who are calling on the government to scrap a planned increase on the carbon tax have their facts wrong.

In an interview airing Sunday on, Wilkinson defended the federal government's landmark climate policy against a growing chorus of provincial leaders who hope to either delay or ditch altogether the impending April 1 increase.

«Based on the facts, the seven premiers are just wrong,» Wilkinson told guest host David Common.

Wilkinson's comments are a continuation of a defence of the carbon tax by federal officials — including Prime Minister Justin Trudeau — on the grounds of affordability. Removing or pausing the carbon tax, they argue, would hurt more people than it helps, because of reduced rebates.

Provincial premiers from across the country have protested the coming increase, which will raise the tax to $80 per tonne from $65. The federal government counters that eight out of 10 Canadians receive more in rebates from the tax than they shell out.

Wilkinson said Sunday that the government needs to do more to convince Canadians of the policy's benefits.

«I think we do need to do a better job of communicating the affordability dimensions of the price on pollution, because it is something that makes life more affordable,» he said.

The carbon tax has been a primary point of attack for Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre, who on Friday held a «Spike the Hike» event in Saint John, N.B., where he highlighted two parliamentary motions that will come to a vote this week calling for the increase and broader tax to be scrapped.

Part of the disagreement between the two parties arises from a Parliamentary Budget Office report from two years ago, which presented two