Carbon tax: Singh won't say if he'll keep consumer price | Power Play with Vassy Kapelos

the Liberals and tories are reacting pretty quickly to comments jug meet Singh made today that make it appear that he now opposes the consumer carbon tax uh my colleague Rachel IO is SED seated right next to me here you've been covering the NDP for the last few days we're going to play a clip of of some of the reaction including from environment Minister Stevie gibau in a second how did this come about because it is prompting so much reaction from the other parties right now yeah so I can peel back the curtain a bit on this one uh heading into today the ndp's message was essentially we don't have much to say so uh we were going to be able to scrum sing reporters got together this was a suggestion from our colleague at the Canadian press because conservative leader Pier PAB has been asking for a carbon tax election and sing won't bite on that element let's ask what his position is right now on the carbon tax because we saw in the house previously he was a bit wishy-washy on this so the question was put to him and his answer was along the lines of what we've heard from the NDP before this talk about not wanting to put a price of pollution on workers backs but the big takeaway for meashi was for a party that spent the whole week talking about not wanting to seem goated into things by conservatives uh specifically on the in the context of a non-confidence motion uh coming out today indicating any sort of indecisiveness on a carbon tax when the conservatives have been going so hard against a carbon tax kind of struck me I thought that was an interesting approach and if you're going to be running in the next election as a progressive cons a progressive alternative to the conservatives you want to fight against Pier PV to be the next prime minister and he has made carbon tax such a big issue the NDP need to have a strong plan and and a strong message and what we heard today was not that it's coming soon just like the conservatives plan let me play let me play for you and our audience both exactly what jug meat Singh said and then right after Mr Singh uh we'll play the clip from Steven Gau the federal minister of environment who posted a video online he wanted to react so much we want to see an approach to fighting the climate crisis where it doesn't put the burden on the backs of working people where big polluters have to pay their fair share they have to pay the price of their pollution but it shouldn't be on working people's shoulders and so we've been working on a plan and we'll be releasing our plan our vision for how we can do that in a stronger way in the coming months would the plan include a consumer carbon tax well we'll let you know when the plan is ready and and we'll let you know more details about it through leadership is often shown when they're going and get stuff the reason I came into politics is to fight climate change which is why I was so disappointed to see Jack mein's NDP cave to PV and the conservative misinformation and disinformation campaign on carbon pricing putting a price on pollution is the best way to reduce emissions Jack M and the NDP know that more than 200 economists have said that it was the best measure that we can put in place to fight climate change it's interesting it's like almost the first time the Liberals have had some good news on this file like I think from their perspective and let me know what you think like they're able in this instance to carve out strategically some ground on the Progressive side on an issue that's incredibly important to their their voters and NDP voters well and we saw that reaction today from new democrat voters asking I want my environment critic my mp Laurel Collins to explain this position can you clarify and if the Liberals are able to open up the field and champion and find a message they can stick being they are the only party who is going to strongly defend a carbon tax a price on pollution maybe that could be their way into uh Shoring up some NDP voters uh it's really interesting heading into the next uh sitting of parliament because the conservatives are going to make it clear that going to put forward a motion of non-confidence there have been other motions in the past on the carbon tax that the NDP have sided with the conservatives on so I wonder in their contemplations heading into next week if they're going to try to find a way to maneuver and at least angle them on it obviously the reaction today from the conservatives was Let's uh not buy this this is another example of the NDP saying one thing and acting another way pointing to all the other times new Democrats voted against their motions against the carbon tax in the house uh the one specific area where the NDP seems kind of soft on the issue is uh wanting to consult with Premier they were uh supportive of the Prime Minister going to meet with Premier when all of the attention was around the latest hike on the carbon price so we intering to see what kind of message the NDP kind of formulate on this to find a coherent way to explain uh what they mean by uh price for big polluters but not on working Canadians and we did try to get them on the show tonight yeah and they declined our request but the other two parties were ready to to debate them so hopefully that happens next week thanks a lot Rachel really appreciate it ctv's Rachel I