Federal carbon tax would make flights between Ottawa and Vancouver $500 more expensive by 2030: study

The National Airlines Council of Canada (NACC) recently unveiled a 7-page cost analysis of the federal carbon tax’s impact on domestic air travel.

“The cost of air travel in Canada will soar if the federal government imposes a carbon tax on air travel in 2019,” claims the report.

The report, conducted by AirTrav, a Toronto aviation consulting firm, studied the effects a carbon tax would have on the price of airline travel between provinces within Canada.

The study predicts that a round trip from Alberta to Nova Scotia for a family of four could cost $411 more by the year 2030.

“One of the unintended consequences of a carbon tax as a pricing mechanism for air travel is that it will penalize residents of small and remote communities that depend on air travel. Most flights in and out of these communities use aircraft that are older, less fuel-efficient and smaller, making the per-passenger cost of the carbon tax higher,” said the study.

In another potential scenario, a couple from Ottawa with two children who visit their parents in Vancouver for the holidays would have to pay upwards to $500 more by 2030 for a single vacation within Canada.

The carbon tax wouldn’t only make things harder for those in rural and isolated communities and business people who frequently rely on air travel to get to work, but it would also damage Canada’s tourism industry.

“This study finds that, if implemented, a carbon tax on air travel would add hundreds of millions of dollars to the cost of domestic air travel, curb growth in the visitor economy, penalize small and remote communities, and encourage still more Canadians to explore US airports and destinations,” says the report.

Due to the rising cost of air travel within Canada, it is likely that the prices will drive Canadians to travel outside of the country, or take advantage of U.S airports to offset the cost of travelling to another province.

The main incentive behind taxing domestic flights seems to be federal tax revenue. The report predicts that the government could make more than $1 billion in total aviation tax revenue.

As more studies come out on the Liberal plan to tax carbon, it is becoming increasingly clear that there’s only one winner: the federal government.