From LifeSiteNews

By Clare Marie Merkowsky

” the Trudeau government was forced to reveal that the tax cost Canadians $82,628,993 last year to collect and then to mail out rebate cheques. The Trudeau government assigned 474 employees to carbon tax paperwork ”

The carbon tax cost Canadians nearly $200 million in paperwork since Parliament introduced the fuel charge in 2019.

According to new records published December 7 by Blacklock’s Reporter, the Liberal government under the leadership of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau spent $199.2 million in taxpayer money on federal administration costs for the carbon tax.

“What were the annual costs to administer collection of the carbon tax and rebate program?” Conservative MP Chris Warkentin questioned in the House of Commons.

In response, the Trudeau government was forced to reveal that the tax cost Canadians $82,628,993 last year to collect and then to mail out rebate cheques. The Trudeau government assigned 474 employees to carbon tax paperwork.

While the Canada Revenue Agency had initially only hired a few employees to manage the carbon tax, the payroll expanded sevenfold after the Trudeau government decided to mail out rebates instead of allowing Canadians to file for the tax credit in their annual returns.

Accordingly, in 2022 there were only 33 employees assigned to the rebate program, but in 2023 the number had risen to 242. Similarly, the total cost of managing the tax rebates increased from $4.3 million in 2022 to $48.6 million in 2023.

Despite the high cost, the Liberal government has maintained that the carbon tax is necessary and the “most efficient” way to cut greenhouse gas emissions.

“Carbon pricing is central to our climate plan because it is the most efficient and lowest cost policy to reduce greenhouse gas pollution,” Canadian Environment Minister Steven Guilbeault claimed last February. “The cost of doing nothing is staggering.”

Similarly, Trudeau defended the cost of collecting the tax last June, saying, “Everyone except apparently the Conservatives understands building in price signals on things we do not want like pollution is one of the most efficient ways of reducing emissions.”

In 2022, Natural Resources Minister Jonathan Wilkinson claimed that 99% of economists agreed on the efficiency of the carbon taxes; however, he failed to cite any paperwork to back up his assertions.

“With respect to the price on pollution, if we asked 100 economists 99 will tell us it is the most efficient way to reduce emissions,” Wilkinson said.

The carbon tax, framed as a way to reduce carbon emissions, has cost Canadians hundreds more annually despite rebates.

The increased costs are only expected to rise, as a recent report revealed that a carbon tax of more than $350 per tonne is needed to reach Trudeau’s net-zero goals by 2050.

Currently, Canadians living in provinces under the federal carbon pricing scheme pay $65 per tonne, but the Trudeau government has a goal of $170 per tonne by 2030.

In October, Trudeau announced that he was pausing the collection of the carbon tax on home heating oil for three years, a provision that primarily benefits the Liberal-held Atlantic provinces. The current cost of the carbon tax on home heating fuel is 17 cents per liter. Most Canadians, however, heat their homes with clean-burning natural gas will not be exempted from the carbon tax.

Despite both Canadians and politicians supporting carbon tax exemptions for all, Trudeau and his government refuse to provide relief.

The government’s current environmental goals – in lockstep with the United Nations’ “2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development” – include phasing out coal-fired power plants, reducing fertilizer usage, and curbing natural gas use over the coming decades.

The reduction and eventual elimination of the use of so-called “fossil fuels” and a transition to unreliable “green” energy has also been pushed by the World Economic Forum (WEF) – the globalist group behind the socialist “Great Reset” agenda – an organization in which Trudeau and some of his cabinet members are involved.