The federal government has committed to a two-year agreement on climate change with PEI.
While that agreement will see home heating fuels on Prince Edward Island exempt from any price on carbon, the province is disappointed that Ottawa is requiring a price on gasoline and diesel of four cents per litre. The Premier says his government disagrees with this approach, but the federal government made it clear that without that approach Islanders would have been forced to pay more to heat their homes.
The province says it will reduce its gasoline excise tax so that the impact at the pumps is instead just one cent in 2019 and another cent in 2020, the provincial government adds that it will return every single cent collected to Islanders.
It also says it will ask the Auditor General to review the funds each year to confirm that all of the revenue collected has been returned to Islanders.