B.C. Opposition Leader Rustad wants to hit U.S. with ‘carbon tax’ on coal shipments

VICTORIA — British Columbia’s Opposition Leader John Rustad has found a carbon tax he likes, proposing such a levy on U.S. thermal coal shipped out of provincial ports as a way to pressure the White House to not impose fresh tariffs on Canadian softwood lumber.

Rustad said the tax on U.S. coal could be a “tool to fight back” on softwood tariffs and duties proposed by U.S. President Donald Trump, who has also proposed tariffs on all Canadian exports.

“We need to be able to create the environment to have a deal with the Americans. We can’t carry on like this on softwood lumber,” Rustad said on Monday.

Rustad was ejected from the former BC Liberal party in 2022 after questioning the role of carbon dioxide emissions on climate change, and has long been a critic of B.C.’s own carbon tax.

On tariffs, he and the B.C. Conservatives had previously said B.C. should avoid retaliating and instead focus on growing B.C.’s economy.

In question period in the B.C. legislature, Premier David Eby complimented the B.C. Conservative Leader for now seeking ways to retaliate against the tariff threat, calling it a “significant departure.”

But Eby said taxing U.S. coal travelling through B.C. ports on its way to other export markets would pose major challenges.

“It’s an export good that goes through a federally regulated port and we can’t place export taxes on products like that,” Eby said.

Softwood lumber has been a friction point between Canada and the United States for decades.

The United States has applied anti-dumping and countervailing duties on softwood products, while Canada has taken its arguments to the World Trade Organization and challenged the duties under both NAFTA and the Canada-United States-Mexico Agreement.

Last week, Forests Minister Ravi Parmar said combined U.S. duties and tariffs on Canadian softwood lumber could increase to more than 50 per cent.

Rustad distinguished between retaliating against the Americans with tariffs and applying a “graduated carbon tax” that would be increased until B.C. got a softwood lumber deal.

He said 18 million tonnes of U.S. thermal coal was shipped through Vancouver, but the province doesn’t use it.

“Until such time as the unfair and unwarranted American duties on our softwood are removed, we need to be ready to hit the Americans where it hurts,” Rustad said in a statement.

Rustad also proposed a ban on American funding for B.C. environmental activists, who he called in a statement “troublemaking layabouts” who wasted police and courts’ time and “dragged our resource industries through costly litigation.”

“We are calling for an end, banning money coming in from the United States to these environmental organizations whose sole target is to disrupt our economy and to stop our opportunity for job creation and for creation of the prosperity and resources and revenues, of course, that government needs,” Rustad said.

The governing NDP meanwhile called for unanimous endorsement for a motion condemning Trump and backing the national plan for “strategically targeted retaliatory action.”

The motion was passed — but not unanimously — in voting late Monday, with five no votes all coming from B.C. Conservative members: Kelowna-Lake Country-Coldstream’s Tara Armstrong, Vancouver-Quilchena’s Dallas Brodie, Surrey South’s Brent Chapman, Peace River North’s Jordan Kealy and Chilliwack North’s Heather Maahs.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Feb. 24, 2025.

Marcy Nicholson, The Canadian Press