If you live in Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Ontario or New Brunswick, you've been hearing a lot about thecoming your way after filing your 2018 income taxes. You know, the one that is supposed to be larger than the amount you actually pay toward the new federal carbon backstop that kicks in on April 1.
Households will be paying the other 50 per cent of the tax, but get back 90 per cent of the revenues through rebates. The government hasthe disparity in allocated revenues by saying that small businesses can just pass the extra costs on to their consumers. But any small business owner can tell you that it's seldom a simple matter of raising prices.
and double that for themselves. There is only so much that a business can pass to its customers before it prices itself out of its own market.Businesses that export to countries that don't have a carbon tax, for example, will be at an even greater disadvantage. Similarly, our bricks-and-mortar retailers are facing ever-greater competition from large U.S. online retailers who don't have a new carbon tax, such as Amazon or eBay.