Montreal, QC – The Canadian Taxpayers Federation is calling on Premier François Legault to scrap Quebec’s carbon tax instead of playing budget games with the Green Fund. 

“Quebecers don’t need another shell game with public money – they need real relief at the pumps,” said Nicolas Gagnon, Quebec Director of the CTF. “The government should lower gas prices by abolishing the carbon tax instead of redistributing money it shouldn’t have taken in the first place.”

According to recent figures, the Electrification and Climate Change Fund (FECC), formerly known as the Green Fund, has built up a $1.8-billion surplus thanks to Quebec’s carbon tax.

The Legault government is now considering using this money to finance road infrastructure, reduce the provincial gas tax or even pay down public debt.

“The idea that the government can tax drivers and then claim to help them by giving a small portion back is completely absurd,” said Gagnon. “You don’t fix bad policy with another layer of bureaucracy.”

Quebec is now the only province in Canada that still imposes a carbon tax on motorists, through its cap-and-trade system linked with California. 

The tax adds about 8.5 cents per litre of gasoline – roughly $5 extra every time a family fills a 64-litre tank.

Government projections show that cost could climb to 23 cents per litre by 2030.

Since its implementation in 2013, Quebec’s carbon tax has already cost taxpayers more than $9.5 billion, including $1.6 billion in 2023-24 alone.

“Instead of dreaming up new rebate schemes or green accounting tricks, Legault should follow the rest of the country’s lead and scrap the carbon tax immediately,” Gagnon concluded.

A Léger poll conducted on May 11, 2025, found that 56 per cent of Quebeckers oppose the carbon tax.