The federal government may force banks to label carbon rebates as such, rather than give direct deposits to Canadians’ accounts more general labels, by amending the Financial Administration Act.
Environment Minister Steven Guilbeault stated this week that the government would be looking to amend legislation to allow the government to label its payments for deposit at Canadian banks whatever label the government chooses, The Canadian Press reports.
In 2022, the first carbon tax rebates were labelled “EFT Canada” along with other more generic terms, which did not inform Canadians why they were receiving the money from the government.
This year, the rebate will be listed as the “Canada carbon rebate” by some banks, but many major banks such as CIBC have labelled the deposit as “Deposit Canada.”
The Bank of Montreal and Toronto Dominion have addressed concerns from the federal government and labelled the deposit “CdaCarbonRebate.”
According to Mr. Guilbeault, many Canadians were unaware they had received their carbon rebates because of the labelling of the deposits.
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“I think we took it for granted that since people were receiving it, people knew they were receiving it,” he said. “We’ve come to discover over the last few months that it wasn’t the case, in part because it the way it was labelled—or mislabelled, I should say—by most financial institutions.”
Mr. Guilbeault added that he did not think the proposal to amend the law would cost financial institutions and said, “I feel that, as a client, we should have the right to label this the way we feel it should be labelled and it’s not up to the banks to decide.”
The change comes as the Liberal Party and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau have touted the carbon tax rebate as a net benefit to 8 in 10 Canadian households, saying they would get more out of the carbon tax than they paid into it.
Tory Leader Pierre Poilievre has claimed the opposite, citing figures from the Parliamentary Budget Officer that claim most families will see hundreds of dollars in net losses even with the carbon tax rebates.
Mr. Poilievre tried repeatedly prior to April 1 to urge the Liberals to stop the 23 percent carbon tax increase, but after a failed motion and a failed non-confidence vote in the House of Commons, the tax did increase.
Earlier this month, however, the House of Commons did pass a motion brought by the Conservatives to demand Mr. Trudeau meet with provincial leaders over the carbon tax hike.
The discussion, which the motion states should happen no later than five weeks after the motion passed on April 10, came after multiple letters from premiers in Ontario, Saskatchewan, Alberta, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, and Newfoundland and Labrador requesting a meeting with the prime minister.
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