The Canadian Taxpayers Federation is calling on the federal government to immediately end the carbon tax.

“Newly announced Liberal leader Mark Carney is set to be sworn in as prime minister, and he needs to make good on his pledge and get rid of the carbon tax right now,” said Kris Sims, CTF Alberta Director. “When he was running for Liberal Party leadership, Carney said he would remove the consumer carbon tax and he needs to do that immediately.

“Canadians should not be paying the carbon tax for one minute longer.”

Carney was announced as leader of the Liberal Party on Sunday, March 9, making him set to be the next prime minister. During party the leadership race, Carney promised to “immediately remove the consumer carbon tax.”

The government has the ability under the Greenhouse Gas Pollution Pricing Act to immediately reduce the carbon tax rate to $0 with no legislative change required, even with Parliament prorogued.

That means the federal government can effectively end the carbon tax immediately.

The carbon tax is scheduled to increase to 21 cents per litre of gasoline, 25 cents per litre of diesel and 18 cents per cubic metre of natural gas on April 1.

The carbon tax will cost about $15 extra to fill up a minivan, about $25 extra to fill up a pick-up truck and about $250 extra to fill up a big rig truck with diesel.

The average Canadian family will pay up to $440 extra in carbon tax on their natural gas home heating bills this winter.

“Half of Canadians are broke, and within $200 every month of not being able to make the minimum payments on their bills, they cannot afford to pay this carbon tax for a minute longer,” said Sims. “The carbon tax is an unfair tax on everything because it punishes Canadians for driving to work, heating their homes, delivering goods and growing food – it needs to be scrapped immediately.”

From The Center Square

By Bethany Blankley

More than $128 million of federal taxpayer money was spent on at least 341 grants to fund gender ideology initiatives under the Biden administration, according to an analysis of federal data by the American Principles Project.

In, “Funding Insanity: Federal Spending on Gender Ideology under Biden-Harris,” APP says it “found how the federal government has been spending hundreds of millions of YOUR MONEY on the Gender Industrial Complex!”

APP says it identified the grants by searching the USA Spending database. The data, which is available for free, is categorized by federal agency; notable grants are highlighted.

The U.S. Health and Human Services Department awarded the greatest amount of funding totaling nearly $84 million through 60 grants.

The Department of State awarded the greatest number of grants, 209, totaling more than $14 million, according to the data.

Other agencies awarding taxpayer-funded gender ideology grants include:

• U.S. Agency for International Development, nearly $18 million through 8 grants;
• National Endowment for the Humanities, more than $2.6 million through 20 grants;
• Department of Justice, $1.9 million through three grants;
• Institute of Museum and Library Services, $1.87 million through 13 grants;
• Department of Education, $1.67 million through two grants;
• Department of Agriculture, $1.6 million through five grants;
• Department of the Interior, more than 1,000,000 awarded through two grants;
• U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, more than $548,000 through 4 grants;
• Inter-American Foundation, more than $490,000 through two grants;
• National Endowment for the Arts, $262,000 through 13 grants.

APP also identified 63 federal agency contracts totaling more than $46 million that promote gender ideology. They include total obligated amounts and the number of contracts per agency.

The majority, $31 million, was awarded through USAID. The next greatest amount of $4.4 million was awarded through the Department of Defense.

The Trump administration has taken several approaches to gut USAID, which has been met with litigation. The Department of Defense and other agencies are also under pressure to cut funding and reduce redundancies.

Notable grants include:

• $3.9 million to Key Populations Consortium Uganda for promoting “the safety, agency, well-being and the livelihoods of LGBTQI+ in Uganda;”
• $3.5 million to Outright International for “the Alliance for Global Equality and its mission to promote LGBTQI+ people in priority countries around the world;”
• $2.4 million to the International Rescue Committee for “inclusive consideration of sexual orientation, gender identity, and sexual characteristics in humanitarian assistance;”
• $1.9 million to the American Bar Association to “shield the LGBTQI+ population in the Western Balkans;”
• $1.4 million for “economic empowerment of and opportunity for LGBTQI+ people in Serbia;”
• $1.49 million to Equality for All Foundation, Jamaica to “Strengthen community support structures to upscale LGBT rights advocacy;”
• More than $1 million to Bandhu Social Welfare Society to support gender diverse people in Bangladesh.

One of the grants identified by APP, which has since been cancelled, was $600,000 from the U.S. Department of Agriculture to Southern University Agricultural & Mechanical College in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, to study menstruation and menopause, including in biological men.

According to a description of the grant summary, funding would support research, extension, and teaching to address “growing concerns and issues surrounding menstruation, including the potential health risks posed to users of synthetic feminine hygiene products (FHP);” advancing research in the development of FHP that use natural materials and providing menstrual hygiene management; producing sustainable feminine hygiene sanitary products using natural fibers; providing a local fiber processing center for fiber growers in Louisiana, among others.

It states that menstruation begins in girls at roughly age 12 and ends with menopause at roughly age 51. “A woman will have a monthly menstrual cycle for about 40 years of her life averaging to about 450 periods over the course of her lifetime,” but adds: “It is also important to recognize that transgender men and people with masculine gender identities, intersex and non-binary persons may also menstruate.”

All federal funding was allocated to state agencies through the approval of Congress when it voted to pass continuing resolutions to fund the federal government and approved agency budgets.