THE CARBON TAX IS STILL OWED OR THE DEFICIT IS LARGER — EITHER WAY, THE SASK. PARTY IS LYING

Claims Of Saskatchewan Being ‘Carbon Tax Free’ Pure Fantasy: Young

REGINA – The Saskatchewan NDP is calling for the government to stop lying as its own budget documents released Friday show nearly a half-billion-dollar budget line item for the provincial carbon tax they claimed was scrapped in April.

The Government’s own quarterly financial release shows a line item for the Output-Based Performance Standards — also known more commonly as the industrial carbon tax — of $466.9 million.

Late Friday, the Government tried to tell reporters that it is “not currently collecting any cash payments under the program. Financial forecasting will be updated once a final decision on the future of the program is made later this year.”

“Scott Moe went public on April 1 with a claim that Saskatchewan is carbon tax free — it turns out he was playing an April Fools’ Day joke on all of us,” said Aleana Young, Saskatchewan NDP Shadow Minister for SaskPower.

“Except this isn’t funny. We have a Premier who lied. He booked massive budget line for the carbon tax and his own staff are admitting a final decision hasn’t been made on the program. It’s simple, either he plans to restart the carbon tax or the deficit reported Friday has actually more than doubled. Or, worst of all, he lied on budget day, and in the Legislature when he claimed Saskatchewan was “carbon-tax free”.

On Friday, the Government said its projected surplus had evaporated and the province is now facing a $349-million deficit hole — but that’s with the massive carbon tax line factored in. Young noted that private and public companies do not have the luxury of putting whatever line items they want in their budgets to pad the numbers.

“This is not clever politics — it’s snake oil,” Young said. “The Premier and his Ministers stood in front of cameras and assured families, farmers, and industry that the tax had vanished — and now we find it alive and well in their very own books.”

“They’ve traded facts for slogans, competence for theatre, and left households and businesses planning around fairy tales. I think it’s fair to say industry has been whipsawed back and forth with no consistency or transparency, and it’s driving investment out of this province. Business can’t operate when the rules change on a dime.”

Young sent letters to the Sask. Party Ministers offices, and the federal government seeking immediate clarity on whether the carbon tax is being collected and asking for justification for blatant lies in the Sask. Party’s financial release Friday.

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