OTTAWA—On the eve of the imposition of the Liberal government’s new carbon tax, new polling data suggests a majority of GTHA residents “accept” Ottawa’s plan.

The data, released by Clean Prosperity and University of Toronto researcher Peter Loewen, suggests 60 per cent of residents of the Greater Toronto and Hamilton area — including Durham, Halton, York, Peel regions and Hamilton, excluding downtown Toronto — either support or accept the Liberals plan to price carbon.

More surprisingly, the data suggests that opposition to the carbon tax largely melts away when respondents were informed that the money from the carbon pricing scheme will be sent back to Ontario households and businesses.

A full 47 per cent of respondents who opposed the policy switched their position to “accept or support” when informed of that intention, according to Clean Prosperity’s data.

The sample size for the poll was small — just 504 respondents in the GTHA, excluding downtown Toronto, with the results weighted for age, gender, country of origin and home ownership. The polling was conducted through an online survey between Jan. 31 and Feb. 15, and Loewen says has an equivalent margin of error of roughly 4.5 percentage points.

The numbers suggest Justin Trudeau’s Liberal government has not done a great job at selling their plan, according to lead researcher Peter Loewen.

“I think it’s a deeply misunderstood tax,” Loewen said in an interview Thursday.

“You’ve got a political debate over the carbon tax here, and it’s reasonable for people to not have all the facts, to not understand how the rebate mechanism is going to work. The federal government has in essence already conceded that, for example it’s taken on an advertisement campaign to tell people to apply for rebates through their income tax.”

The federal government’s carbon tax plan kicks in next week. Provinces that don’t have a climate plan that meets Ottawa’s minimum standards will be subject to the carbon tax, but 90 per cent of the money collected through that tax will be sent back to households in that province through an income tax rebate.

The federal Liberals estimate that means an annual rebate of $307 for an average Ontarian household.

According to the Clean Prosperity data, just 28 per cent of respondents oppose the carbon tax in the GTHA, while 13 per cent are undecided.

“When asked how their views would change if they received a rebate that exceeded their costs … 60 per cent of those who opposed switched their position to support or accept,” according to Clean Prosperity.

“Understanding about the rebate is low. Just 41 per cent of Ontarians in the surveyed area were aware of the federal government’s plan to rebate money to households and businesses.”