Poilievre calls on Trudeau to meet with premiers opposing federal carbon price

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau should convene an emergency meeting with the country's premiers to discuss the federal carbon price, Conservative Pierre Poilievre wrote in a letter Tuesday.

Poilievre circulated the letter following the $15-per-tonne increase to the consumer carbon price that kicked in on Monday.

The scheduled increase added about 3.3 cents to the carbon price per litre of gasoline. A 50-litre tank will now see a carbon surcharge of $8.80, about $1.65 more than before.

The Official Opposition leader has spent the past month travelling across the country, including to Liberal- and NDP-held ridings in the Greater Toronto Area, Atlantic Canada and British Columbia, hosting «axe the tax» rallies.

Poilievre vows to scrap the policy if he becomes prime minister after the next election.

The federal Conservatives have long opposed charging the fuel levy to consumers, as well as small- and medium-sized businesses.

The party argues it amounts to a tax. Under Poilievre, it has ratcheted up its attacks in an attempt to connect carbon pricing to inflation and the pressures Canadians are feeling due to broader affordability woes.

Trudeau has pushed back against Poilievre's assertion the carbon price is adding to families' financial pain.

He says critics, including conservative premiers, are inflating the impact of the fuel levy and points to the quarterly rebates families receive to help offset costs. The payments are most generous for low-income households.

In the lead-up to the April 1 increase, Trudeau dismissed calls from seven premiers to cancel it, including one from the lone Liberal provincial premier, Newfoundland and Labrador's Andrew Furey.

All Atlantic premiers requested the pause, along with Ontario, Saskatchewan and