In addition to meetings in July with NL Minister of Natural Resources Allan Parsons, the CPA met recently in early October with government officials in New Brunswick, PEI, and Nova Scotia.
Those meetings focused on home heating affordability and the CPA’s efforts to petition all provincial governments to consider the model that Alberta has adopted, whereby propane customers up to a certain threshold qualify for a rebate on the cost of their home heating. The measure is temporary and in place until March 2023.
The CPA has heard from NL Minister of Finance Siobhan Coady who stated that the government does not have the flexibility to offer energy rebates relating to carbon taxes. They will, however, be offering a one-time payment of $200-$500 to supplement the cost of home heating oil for families making less than $150,000 per year. The CPA is pursuing further discussions with officials in her department to have the same supplement applied to propane used for home heating (see Advocacy at its best: Propane users question government decision to not include propane in home heating program). The CPA awaits formal responses from the other Maritime provinces on this particular topic.
More general discussions on the role of propane in the government’s approach to program development have taken place with senior officials (including the premiers’ offices) in Fredericton, Charlottetown and Halifax.
In PEI, SVP Government Relations Allan Murphy met with Minister of Fisheries Jamie Fox, who has agreed to have a deeper look at propane replacing diesel in fishery applications such as back-up power generation.
In Nova Scotia, Murphy met with Nick Drain, senior advisor to Provincial Minister of Agriculture Greg Morrow. Those discussions focused on the possible application of the federal carbon tax on farmers in that province and the CPA’s efforts to support a private member's bill in the House of Commons, which would see propane exempted from the tax for various agriculture applications.