For those Bradford residents living outside of the urban area, it can be difficult to avoid the financial impacts of the federal carbon tax.
But some relief could be on the way.
Council passed a motion moved by Ward 6 Coun. Nickolas Harper Dec. 19, which asks the federal government to extend the rural supplement of the Carbon Action Incentive Payment (CAIP) program to the town’s rural residents.
“We are in a cost-of-living crisis,” Harper said. “I am not in favour of the carbon tax altogether, but a motion like this, whether you’re for it or against it is irrelevant, because it will actually do what we can to try to make our residents get the money that is owed to them.”
The CAIP is a tax-free amount paid by the federal government to individuals and families to offset the cost of federal carbon pricing and is available to residents of Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba and Ontario.
The payment is made in four equal amounts each year. That includes a basic amount and a supplement for residents of small and rural communities, for which the federal government announced on Oct. 26 the amount would double from 10 to 20 per cent starting in April 2024.
Despite Bradford comprising both urban and rural areas, including the Holland Marsh, one of the country's biggest carrot-producing regions known as the ‘soup and salad bowl of Canada,’ the entire town is currently classified as urban and part of the Toronto census metropolitan area, meaning rural residents are not eligible for the supplement.
Council is asking the federal government to ensure the town’s rural residents are made eligible for the rural supplement, but didn’t specify how that should be done.
Council also agreed to send a copy of the motion to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau; the relevant federal cabinet ministers; Leader of the Official Opposition, Pierre Poilievre; Ontario Premier Doug Ford; all 444 member municipalities of the Association of Municipalities Ontario (AMO) and York-Simcoe MP Scot Davidson.
The local MP released his own letter dated Nov. 30 calling for council’s support in “speaking out” against the federal government’s decision to disqualify Bradford’s rural residents from receiving the supplement “which is unfair and disproportionately punishes the residents ... across BWG.”
While Harper had previously made notice of motion during the Dec. 5 meeting, some councillors expressed concerns over wording, which was reworked for the Dec. 19 meeting.
Ward 2 Coun. Jonathan Scott thanked Harper for developing the motion and gave Davidson credit for bringing the issue forward.
“There’s a flaw here that needs to be fixed,” he said. “We’re in the Toronto metropolitan census area, and that’s way too blunt an instrument to deal with this.”
Scott said defining which properties are rural could be difficult and depends on multiple factors, including examples such as being located on a rural road, having no access to municipal servicing or being a member of the Ontario Federation of Agriculture.
Ward 4 Coun. Joseph Giordano was also pleased with the revised motion, which was worded to be more politically neutral.
“Our job is to be for the people and the majority of people across Canada and the world are right in the centre,” he said. “Most people are not far left or far right, and often we’re getting pulled to be one or the other, when most people are fitting in the middle.”
Giordano also noted Bradford shares some similarities with municipalities like King and Caledon, which are not “traditional rural.”
“We are definitely way more urban than we are rural, but we have farming in our communities. We need to change the definition altogether,” he said.
Mayor James Leduc was also supportive of the motion since it no longer requested Bradford lose its urban designation and be removed from the Toronto census metropolitan area.
During the Dec. 5 meeting, the mayor explained those requests would conflict with the town’s ongoing efforts to see the regional governance structure reviewed based on how heavily Bradford is tied to the Greater Toronto Area.
“I’m quite happy with it,” the mayor said of the revised recommendation.
The motion passed unanimously among those present, though Ward 5 Coun. Peter Ferragine was absent from the meeting.
