WELLINGTON COUNTY – Residents of Guelph-Eramosa and Puslinch will not qualify for a 10 per cent increase in a tax incentive designed to return federal carbon tax revenue to Ontario residents.
The 2018 tax return will include the Climate Action Incentive, providing a credit of $154 for a single person and $307 for a family of four, according to the federal environment and natural resources ministry.
This amount will be increased by 10% as a supplement for residents of “small and rural communities, in recognition of their increased energy needs and reduced access to energy efficient transportation options.”
For the purpose of this incentive, small and rural communities are defined as “anywhere outside of a census metropolitan area (CMA), as defined by Statistics Canada.”
The Statistics Canada website has a map of the Guelph CMA, showing that it includes not only the City of Guelph, but all of Guelph-Eramosa and Puslinch townships.
Residents of those municipalities will still qualify for the primary credit, but not the additional 10%. It does not matter if the taxpayer lives on a rural or urban property.
Residents of Centre Wellington, Erin, Mapleton, Minto and Wellington North will qualify for the extra 10%, since those municipalities are not part of any CMA.
Other nearby CMAs are the Kitchener-Cambridge-Waterloo CMA to the west, the Toronto CMA (including Caledon, but not Erin) to the east, and the Hamlton CMA to the south.
Centre Wellington is classified as a CA (Census Agglomeration), not a CMA.
The federal government says the base amounts of the incentive will go up annually, reaching $360 for one person and $718 for a family of four by 2022.
The formula provides a base amount for one parent, plus 50% of that for a spouse or child, plus 25% of the base amount for each child (starting with the second child for single parents).
The Climate Action Incentive is part of the federal Greenhouse Gas Pollution Pricing Act, a system being imposed on provinces such as Ontario that do not have a carbon pricing system that meets federal standards.
The Ontario Progressive Conservative government cancelled the provincial cap and trade carbon pricing system last year, saying it was killing jobs, and is challenging the federal carbon tax in court. The cap and trade system had generated about $3 billion in revenue since it was started by the Ontario Liberals in 2017.
Ottawa started collecting revenue from emissions-intensive industries as of January, and will impose a fossil fuel tax in April that is expected to add 4.42 cents per litre to gasoline at the pump, and 3.91 cents per cubic metre of natural gas.
The federal government says the average cost impact per household in Ontario will be $244 in 2019, which it expects will motivate people to use less energy where possible.
With an average payment under the Climate Action Initiative of $300, the federal government says most people will come out ahead.
Money returned
While most money collected under the plan will be returned to people via the Climate Action Initiative, some will be used for initiatives to support “particularly affected sectors”.
The federal government says it will provide an estimated $1.45 billion through this system over five years to support schools, hospitals, small and medium-sized businesses, colleges and universities, municipalities, non-profit groups and Indigenous communities, with the intent of helping them save money and create jobs.
Direct proceeds from industrial facilities will be directed to supporting reductions in greenhouse gas emissions.
