HALIFAX — Nova Scotia’s Progressive Conservative premier has joined a call from leaders across the country asking for a meeting with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to discuss carbon pricing.

Tim Houston took to social media to share a letter he wrote to Trudeau on Friday in which he asked the prime minister to convene a first ministers’ meeting “to eliminate the carbon tax in an effort to make life more affordable for all Canadians.”

Last month, as an alternative to the federal carbon pricing scheme, he submitted to Trudeau a “Still Better Than a Carbon Tax Plan,” which outlined his government’s previously released proposals for coastal protection, climate change, clean electricity and green hydrogen.

Trudeau told reporters earlier this week that he hadn’t seen the details of Houston’s plan, but that he was open to talking about it.

Six premiers have now asked Trudeau for a first ministers’ meeting about carbon pricing, including Andrew Furey, the Liberal leader of Newfoundland and Labrador, and Ontario’s Progressive Conservative Premier Doug Ford.

The federal carbon price includes a quarterly rebate which works out to $988 per year for families of four in rural Nova Scotia, and to more than $1,400 and $1,300 in rural parts of Newfoundland and Labrador and Ontario, respectively. The next payment is expected on April 15.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published April 6, 2024.

The Canadian Press