Surprise: Canadian Carbon Tax Rebates Lagging

See, members of the of the Cult of Climastrology make grandiose promises about people getting all sorts of money back from the carbon taxes passed into law by Warmists to offset the artificially increased cost of living from those taxes, and then

Average carbon-tax rebates are lagging federal estimates, data suggests

The federal government has returned $1.75 billion in carbon-tax rebates to more than eight million Canadian families, the Canada Revenue Agency says.

Roughly 8,022,780 families had claimed the rebate as of June 3, the federal tax agency said Friday.

Families in Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Ontario and New Brunswick are eligible for the “climate action incentive,” which is claimed as a rebate on their personal income taxes.

The Canada Revenue Agency said in May about 97 per cent of eligible families had applied for the rebates, based on the personal tax returns it had processed to that point; as of Friday, it didn’t yet have an updated application rate to match the latest payout numbers.

But, see, it’s not actually rebated money. Let’s say you purchase a TV, and it has a $100 rebate. You send it in, they send you $100. Now, let’s say you claim a $7,500 rebate on your taxes. You do not get $7500, it just changes the taxation schedule, meaning you either get more money back (but not $7,500) or owe less (but won’t be reduced by $7,500 actual dollars).

Legislation requires 90 per cent of the revenues to be returned to individuals with the rebates, through a tax credit that varies by province because the amount of carbon tax someone pays will be influenced by where he or she lives. Officials have previously said rebate levels will be adjusted each year to ensure that 90-per-cent target is always met.

This year’s rebates were paid up front, before the revenues were collected. It means the rebates were only based on estimates, not actual amounts of carbon tax collected.

When announcing the carbon-tax rebate program, the federal government estimated the average payment would be $248 in New Brunswick, $300 in Ontario, $336 in Manitoba and $598 in Saskatchewan.

As of June 3, CRA says, the average payment was less than those amounts: $174 in New Brunswick, $203 in Ontario, $231 in Manitoba and $422 in Saskatchewan.

Surprise? That’s about 30% less than anticipated. Think the cost of living hasn’t gone up that much, though?

The climate payments are intended to offset increased costs for Canadians. Environment Minister Catherine McKenna has said putting a price on pollution is intended to provide financial incentives to find ways to cut your own greenhouse-gas footprint without affecting your standard of living — the difference between a household’s rebate and its carbon-tax payments, it gets to keep.

Yet, the same people who pass these laws virtually never change their own behavior.