From LifeSiteNews

By Clare Marie Merkowsky

The report, which cost taxpayers $493,937, was meant to make an economic case in favor of Trudeau’s environmental agenda, including his ever-increasing carbon tax.

Documents have revealed that Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s government paid the World Economic Forum (WEF) to produce a report justifying its radical “climate change” policies, including the infamous carbon tax.  

According to documents obtained by Conservative MP Leslyn Lewis through an Order Paper Question, Trudeau’s Environment and Climate Change (ECC) department’s then-minister, Catherine McKenna, commissioned the socialist WEF to produce a report supporting Trudeau’s environmental agenda in August 2019.  

“Trudeau paid the WEF nearly $500K of Canadian taxpayer money for the New Nature Economy Report justifying his carbon tax,” Lewis wrote in a March 18 post on X, formerly known as Twitter.  

“This was revealed through a question I submitted to the government,” she added. “Global interest groups should not be trusted to care about the prosperity of Canadians.”  

Trudeau paid the WEF nearly $500K of Canadian taxpayer money for the New Nature Economy Report justifying his carbon tax. This was revealed through a question I submitted to the government. Global interest groups should not be trusted to care about the prosperity of Canadians. pic.twitter.com/dt4pBOdqwm

— Dr. Leslyn Lewis (@LeslynLewis) March 18, 2024

The report, which cost taxpayers $493,937, was meant to make an economic case for Trudeau’s environmental agenda, including his ever-increasing carbon tax.   

According to the newly revealed documents, the ECC commissioned the report “to enable [the WEF] to produce and disseminate a report that will establish the business and economic case for safeguarding nature.”  

“This report will be directed at senior decision makers in governments and businesses who have the influence and ability to shift business-as-usual approach,” it added.  

The report, titled New Nature Economy Report Series, was published six months later, providing everything the Trudeau government had requested.  

The WEF report recommended that “carbon pricing should also be introduced” as a way “to tackle rampant levels of deforestation and combat climate change simultaneously.”  

“Ultimately, to make nature-positive models investable, explicitly pricing in and articulating environmental cost factors to penalize unsustainable practices – such as through carbon taxes, for example – will be a game changer,” it claimed.  

The report further suggested that, “If 12 other countries rolled out a tropical carbon tax like those of Costa Rica and Colombia, together they could raise a total of $1.8 billion each year to invest in natural-climate solutions.” 

The newly revealed documents come as Trudeau has refused to pause the carbon tax hike scheduled for April 1 despite appeals from seven of ten provincial premiers.   

Trudeau’s carbon tax, framed as a way to reduce carbon emissions, has cost Canadian households hundreds of dollars 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.     

The April 1 tax hike will increase the federal carbon tax to 17 cents per liter of gasoline, 21 cents per liter of diesel, and 15 cents per cubic meter of natural gas.   

In addition to seven out of ten of Canada’s premiers opposing the tax hike, a recent survey found that 70 percent of Canadians likewise oppose Trudeau’s carbon tax increase.    

However, despite appeals from politicians and Canadians alike, Trudeau remains determined to increase the carbon tax regardless of its effects on Canadians’ lives.    

“My job is not to be popular – although it helps. My job is to do the right things for Canada. Now. And do the right things for Canadians,” he declared.    

The Trudeau government’s current environmental goals – which are 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 so-called “fossil fuels” and a transition to unreliable “green” energy has also been pushed by the World Economic Forum – the aforementioned group famous for its socialist “Great Reset” agenda – in which Trudeau and some of his cabinet are involved.