The 'carbon tax' did not provoke police intervention at Montreal food bank: experts

The Conservative Party of Canada (CPC) is suggesting there is a link between a police intervention in a Montreal food bank and the "carbon tax."

On Monday, CPC leader Pierre Poilievre reposted a message from Conservative MP Dane Lloyd on X: "Liberal carbon tax inflation has caused a food crisis in communities across Canada. The situation has become so dire that this Montreal food bank called 911 to deal with a hungry Canadian crowd."

Poilievre also alluded to the police intervention in the food bank in the House of Commons on Thursday.

Lloyd's message contains a link to a CBC article on the police intervention at the Cuisine et vie collectives Saint-Roch organization in Parc-Extension a few weeks ago.

It was the food bank officials who requested the presence of the police, because jostling occurred during a food distribution.

The question remains: have people who work at the food bank ever suggested that carbon pricing could be linked to these events?

"No, really not," said Saint-Roch coordinator Nancy Dion,

The Saint-Roch collective Cuisine et vie collectives organization has been operating in the sector for 30 years.

The recent increase in demand at the Saint-Roch collective is mainly explained by the exponential arrival of migrants in recent months, according to her.

"We are really on the front line," she said. "They get off the plane, they have no winter boots, no coat, they are cold, they come to see us and they are hungry."

The conflict and scuffles that required police intervention reportedly occurred between a group of newcomers, who were unaware that they had to register to obtain food, and other beneficiaries who were members of the food bank.

"There were people in the queue who were not registered members of the organization and who did not know that they had to register and there was a bit of a rush at that level," said Food Banks of Quebec director Martin Munger.

"Many have no status; they are asylum seekers, and we are their first recourse," said Dion, specifying that these people are "starving people" who arrive directly from India, Bangladesh or Sri Lanka.

She explained that they "have no income and no possibility of social integration," as most "do not speak English or French and are unable to fill out a form."

Across the province, the demand for food baskets is increasing and according to Munger, "who does not wish to get involved in partisan politics," three main causes explain this increase.

"On the one hand, there are the effects of the pandemic which are still being felt, there is the housing crisis and also inflation," he said.

Carbon pricing and food prices

The Canadian Press requested an interview with the CPC to understand why it established a link between carbon pricing and the event that occurred in Parc-Extension.

Conservative spokesperson Marion Ringuette said that no MP was available to comment, adding this explanation: "Quebec imports food from the rest of Canada. The farmers who grow this food pay the carbon tax, the food processors pay the carbon tax, the truckers who transport this food to Quebec pay the carbon tax. This means that Justin Trudeau's carbon tax increases the price of food for Quebecers, even if they do not directly pay his carbon tax."

Economist Charles Séguin said, "it is a bit far-fetched" to make a link with the event that occurred at the Parc-Extension food bank, for various reasons, notably because carbon pricing does not apply in Quebec .

"Obviously, there are foods that can be produced outside of Quebec and sold in Quebec, but the impact of carbon pricing on food prices is very small," said Séguin. "Particularly because the agricultural sector is largely excluded from pricing."

"The impact can however be felt through transport costs," but he said, "we saw that gasoline prices on average in Canada decreased by four per cent in January compared to January of the previous year. So, in the current dynamic, we cannot say that it really affects food prices."

Carbon pricing applies directly to the cost of fuels, but it can also be integrated into the cost of goods, such as food, as fuel producers and retailers pass costs along the chain supply.

Carbon pricing and inflation

Bank of Canada governor Tiff Macklem estimated that carbon pricing was responsible for only about a twentieth of inflation in 2023 when the inflation rate hovered around three per cent.

Two researchers from the University of Calgary's School of Public Policy recently looked at the effects of the carbon tax on food costs in British Columbia.

Federal carbon pricing does not apply in Quebec because it has imposed its own carbon tax since 2008.

Estimates by economics professor Trevor Tombe and his associate Jennifer Winter suggest that the tax raised the average cost of food by about 0.3 per cent compared to what it would be without the tax.

"Which is still quite modest," said Séguin.

However, the scientific director of the Agri-Food Analytical Sciences Laboratory at Dalhousie University, Sylvain Charlebois, believes that "it is extremely difficult, if not impossible, to establish a correlation between carbon price policy, or the market of carbon in Quebec, and the price of retail food products."

There are so many factors that influence retail prices, he said, citing the weather, consumer tastes, trends, and other factors.

However, he believes that the increase in pricing "could compromise the competitiveness of the agri-food industry in the long term," because "it could increase production costs."

He said, "this does not necessarily mean that costs will be influenced at retail in the short term, but in the long term, it is certain that it can affect the competitiveness of the sector."

A tax that affects 'the rich'

Séguin noted that in provinces where federal carbon pricing is in effect, most families receive more in reimbursements than they pay in carbon taxes.

"The majority of income brackets receive a reimbursement that is higher than the costs incurred by carbon pricing," he said.

Carbon pricing is based on the principle that people will change their consumption habits if the price they pay for greenhouse gas-emitting fuels increases.

Thus, consumers who buy less fuel will pay less carbon tax while benefiting from the same rebates from Ottawa.

However, those "who emit the most GHGs" because they "have energy-intensive vehicles that run on oil" can receive less in federal rebates than what they pay in taxes, explained Séguin.

"But they are not the ones using food banks," he said.

'The stakes of the next elections'

Poilievre tried unsuccessfully this week to bring down the Liberal government with a motion of no confidence regarding the "carbon tax" and he wants to make it the issue of the next election.

For his part, Environment Minister Steven Guilbault estimates that carbon pricing will make it possible to reduce GHG emissions in the country by up to a third by 2030.

"So if there is someone somewhere who can find me a zero-cost measure and who is capable of giving us a third of our emissions reductions, let that person come and see me, because, for me, I've been working on this for 30 years and I don't know any," said Guilbeault.

Carbon pricing is expected to increase next month by $15 per tonne of carbon dioxide emissions into the atmosphere, to $80.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published in French on March 24, 2024.