By Cheryl Jahn

North hit especially hard on April 1st

Mar 22, 2024 | 3:11 PM

PRINCE GEORGE – On April 1st, watch the price at the pump jump. That’s because the government of BC will be adding to the carbon tax. And for northern BC, where everything comes to the region via something that requires fuel, it’s costly.

“Folks are going to see the cost of just about everything going up on April 1st. And that’s before we mention gasoline, diesel and home heating British Columbia,” explains Caron Binda, the BC Director of the Canadian Taxpayer Federation. “And drivers already pay the highest taxes per liter of gasoline of anyone in Canada.”

And the cost of the carbon tax is basic economics. The more it costs to get the product onto the shelves, it’ll land on the consumer at perhaps the worst possible time.

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“So this is hitting people at a time in which they’re already feeling a 25 percent increase in basic food costs,” says Charles Scott with UNBC’s School of Business. “They’re feeling continued increase in costs of accommodations. They’ve got interest rates going up. And so they’re paying there’s more and more costs relative to how much more money you’re getting. And so people are moving backwards. This is a very difficult time.”

But the tax doesn’t just impact drivers. It includes home heating fuels as well, which is really not an option in the north.

“So jacking up a tax on everything, which is what the carbon tax is, is just going to make life harder for everyone in BC,” says Binda. “David Eby needs to do the right thing. He needs to stand up for his constituents, for British Columbians and cancel this carbon tax hike.

Charles Scott says there will be repercussions with not the idea of a carbon tax, but how it is being administered both provincially and federally.