‘No more carve-outs coming,’ natural resources minister says of carbon price

There will be “no more carve-outs coming” to the federal government’s carbon pricing policy, Natural Resources Minister Jonathan Wilkinson said Tuesday.

In a scrum with reporters on his way in to a cabinet meeting, Wilkinson faced a series of questions about the Liberals’ three-year pause on the federal carbon price on home heating oil, and whether the government is considering the calls coming from across the country and political spectrum to expand the affordability break across all forms of home heating.

“There will be no more carve-outs coming,” Wilkinson said.

Amid political heat over fellow Liberal minister Gudie Hutchings stating perhaps the Prairies need to “elect more Liberals” to secure carve-outs, one of the governing caucus’ two Alberta MPs, Employment Minister Randy Boissonnault, sought to clarify that his party governs “as a country.”

“I’m not going to sit here and tell different regions of the country who they should vote for, I fight for every one of the votes that I get,” Boissonnault said. “What we’ve done in this particular case on the gas emissions and home heating oil, is to be responsive and flexible to a region of the country that simply doesn’t have alternatives, and I do think it’s going to help our plan succeed in the future.”

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau did not stop to answer questions on his way into the cabinet meeting, telling reporters that he will scrum ahead of question period.

NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh has scheduled an 11:15 a.m. ET press conference on Parliament Hill to discuss his party’s push “to lower costs for Canadians heading into the winter months.”

This is a developing story, check back for updates…