MOOSE JAW — Coun. Patrick Boyle has used every public opportunity he’s had to harshly criticize the federal government’s carbon tax, while he now hopes that a provincial organization will champion his cause.
The Saskatchewan Urban Municipalities Association (SUMA) has its spring convention in April and has asked its members to submit resolutions about issues they want the province, Ottawa or other agencies to address. However, whether any resolutions reach the convention floor will be up to SUMA’s standing committee on resolutions.
Boyle brought forward a resolution about the federal carbon tax during city council’s Jan. 27 regular meeting.
His submission explained that Saskatchewan municipalities have faced “significant financial burdens” since 2019 because of the carbon tax that the Government of Canada had imposed.
Furthermore, the councillor wrote that the tax increases by roughly 20 per cent annually, while the offset programs and rebates that Ottawa promised were either never implemented or, like the climate action incentive fund (CAIF), were discontinued in March 2021.
The CAIF had returned 10 per cent of the federal fuel charge revenue to municipalities, but its replacement has provided no financial relief to the municipal sector, the submission claimed.
Meanwhile, the carbon tax has contributed to inflation, further diminished the purchasing power of municipal governments, and increased costs for residents, Boyle’s submission added. Given these challenges, he wanted SUMA to advocate for Ottawa to return all the money it had collected from Saskatchewan municipalities through the carbon tax.
“It may seem like a tall order and tall task to ask for something like this, but if municipal governments … don’t start saying something and doing something here, (then) we have to really ask, what is the return on this?” Boyle said while discussing his submission.
The carbon tax has not decreased greenhouse gas emissions, nor have any rebate programs materialized, as Ottawa said, he continued.
Instead, what municipalities have seen is taxation that increases the cost of goods and services, which was reflected in the 2025 budget, where roughly two per cent of the 5.17-per-cent mill rate increase was due to carbon tax increases, Boyle claimed.
“It’s something we have to be strong on now, especially with the uncertainty of the federal government, that this is not going away, and we’re not going to be quiet about it … ,” he continued. “This is the time to attack it even more.”
Boyle argued that municipalities should also ask where additional federal funding programs are to support infrastructure upgrades to fix aging assets. He pointed to a culvert in Moose Jaw that wooden beams are holding up as an example of crumbling infrastructure.
“We don’t have funding for that,” he remarked.
Boyle also reiterated how the carbon tax had created inflationary pressures, increased the cost of goods and services and affected the buying power of municipalities and citizens.
Council then voted unanimously to forward the submission to SUMA for consideration.
The next regular council meeting is Monday, Feb. 10.
