Home heating fuel prices drop in Nunavut
GN announces new prices as a result of federal pause on carbon tax for home heating
The price of home heating fuel is down across the territory after the federal government announced a three-year pause on including the product in its carbon tax regime. (File photo)
A pause in the federal carbon tax on home heating fuel is now in place in Nunavut.
The Government of Nunavut announced last week that a price reduction on the product would come into effect Nov. 12.
The price of home heating fuel is now $1.34 per litre in all communities except Iqaluit, down from $1.47 per litre. The price in Iqaluit is now $1.27, down from $1.40 per litre.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced Oct. 26 the pause would last for three years across the country.
The carbon tax went into effect April 1, 2022. It’s meant to reduce the amount of fossil fuel consumed in Canada.
Northern premiers have long spoken out against the carbon tax, saying it doesn’t take into consideration realities of living in the North.
Nunavut politicians fought in 2018 for an exemption to the carbon tax for home heating fuel in the territory. At the time, then-premier Joe Savikataaq said he was having discussions with federal leaders, but they were not “getting anywhere.”
The GN offered a 50 per cent rebate on carbon tax for all Nunavummiut when the tax first rolled out, but that rebate was replaced with a refundable tax credit starting in July following changes to the federal carbon tax rules. That credit comes to Nunavummiut every three months.
The GN also paid out a one-time, $1,000 fuel rebate on April 3 to Nunavut homeowners.
“The Nunavut Homeowner Fuel Rebate recognizes the increased costs that inflation and new federal carbon tax rates have had on Nunavut homeowners,” said Finance Minister Lorne Kusugak at the time.
“This rebate gives homeowners a bit of relief on the high costs of heating their homes.”
All of Nunavut’s 25 communities generate their power from diesel fuel. The diesel those plants use to generate electricity is exempt from the carbon tax.
Now remove the GST and we will have some more relief. And reduce the cost of electricity too. We must pay some of the highest rates in Canada and it is presently next to impossible to reduce our consumption in a meaningful way. Changing some light bulbs doesn’t cut it.
It would be helpful if NU residents could access more meaningful rebate programs so that home owners could make their homes more energy efficient.
GST pays for your GST cheques you never worked for, it pays for the welfare line up, child tax, ever TAX pays for something, giving out money for free is not a thing, its called social assistants
GST on fuel doesnt cover those perks. Income tax does. Oh I guess one would have to have a job then.
Have you tried to access or contact the program provider?
The company that inspects homes in Nunavut is in nova scotia or ontario.
I have tried a number of occasions to contact them, left messages, but never a return call
I will continue, but it does get frustrating considering we have inspectors in Iqaluit and Yellowknife.
When it is going to be enough. Love these people around here that complain about how they get the short end of the stick constantly. Nunavut is a magical beautiful place but because of this, infrastructure is isolated costing a great deal more than down South so services cost more. But the cost of essential goods here are not that different, fuel being one of them. Southern provinces which have government regulated prices pay over 2 dollars a liter for heating oil, and nobody down there pays 64 dollars a month for taxpayer funded housing.
To add on top of what Jim Bo said in his corrections to your comment, it’s also worth noting that heating oil is much cheaper in Nunavut than down south. It costs almost 2000 dollars to fill a regular sized tank down there. It’s $1.93/L today, which is actually pretty low.
The comments have considered the locations. South is warmer, use less heating fuel and more likely using pipelines to hook up houses for diesel fuel. whereas in the north, you have to buy a barrel of fuel as compared to south where you pay per litre. Houses in the south may use 100 litres per month whereas in the north, houses use 207 litres x 3 = 621 litres a month.
They understand it but they get others to do their paper work. Theyre just their for the job. Lazy self thinking older generations. Useless.
To this day trying to own a house is hard enough bills all have to be paid,
2/3 years ago a fill up diesel was about $0.93 a liter a 1000 liter tank just under $1000.oo ,
todate is close to $1600.oo add the carbon tax on top of ,
This will help to have a warmer place this cold winter it be again as Nunavut have the least carbon foot prints compared to the rest of the world…
David
Think about this; In order for the heating oil to be brought up here it is processed and refined in the south, transported via ships to the north and then distributed throughout communities by pump trucks on a rather consistent basis because people can’t afford to fill the tanks and only fill a portion of it per paycheque.
Add on the ONLY power generated up here worth any note is by burning fuel. Sure, it’s not coal, but it’s still burning dead dinosaurs for power at the end of the day. Nunavut has to be one of the LEAST carbon neutral places in Canada, North America and possibly the entire world due to the amount of excess shipping and transport that goes into keeping this territory BARELY afloat.
The Nunavut Carbon Tax Credit is useless anyway. You pay the tax, then you get it credited back. It is just money exchanging hands for no purpose, perhaps only to fund the wages of some finance clerks.
The tax would work for its intended purpose if people, motivated by paying higher costs for fuel, decided to heat their house, or power their snowmobile, ATV or boat with something else other than fossil fuels. The might even use their tax credit to help pay for the change. That is the theory.
However, there are few, if any, realistic options for heating and mobility up here. Even if there were, the GN offers little to no assistance to people to look at fossil fuel options. Seriously, if you wanted to change to wood pellets or biomass, where would a homeowner, already struggling to keep the lights on, even start?
The Yukon Government has its Energy Branch. The GNWT has the Arctic Energy Alliance. The GN opted out of the Arctic Energy Alliance almost a generation ago. Unless you count helping people put panels on their cabins, very little energy management effort on the part of GN today.
So, instead of this being about decarbonization, this issue has defaulted to one of energy affordability.
If there were any decarbonization capacity in Nunavut, then it might make sense to apply a carbon tax. As it is, the Liberals in Ottawa and the GN in Iqaluit are both simply smoking some serious weed.
Clearly, you haven’t done much research.
There are grants and interest-free loans available to homeowners in Nunavut to improve the energy efficiency in their homes.
Check the websites of the NHC and the feds before criticizing them.
The should drop the tax from the fuel Nunavut Power Corporation buys too so our electrical rates do not see a major jump.
GST and HST is huge.
If you earn $100,000 that is $5000 to $12,000 annually out of your spending power, 2-3 weeks pay.
The only time I see government is on pay day when they take income tax, then again at the store when I spend my money they already tax and take off GST and HST. Every time I fill up my vehicle, they take carbon tax and then add the GST on it like carbon tax is a commodity.
I for one am sick of paying taxes to see the Liberal government give it themselves though an 8 million dollar barn, 54 million to a company for arrive can, to the Billion dollar green slush fund where board members are lining their pockets.
Ottawa is so corrupt, people need to start going to jail for stealing from tax payers, stealing for all Canadians.
They too need to be reminded they are public servants and are not there to line their pockets but to provide programs and services that help all Canadians and now just a few rich people.
Thanks for your comments, Hunter; I agree with your sentiment.
The $5,000 to $12,000 annually for GST or HST is not possible however.
Even if there was 15% HST charged, one would have to buy between $33,000 and $80,000 of HSTable goods and services annually, which is not possible on a $100,000 salary given that rent, mortgages, insurance, property tax, education, child care, medical goods and services, and food are exempt.
If carbon tax was removed at 0.17/Litre it should go back to 1.28/litre, but it went down to 1.34/litre, they should explain where the 0.07 is going to.