“It’s not so much a tax as a price on pollution, which is a disincentive to pollute. I think that’s a good thing for everyone — for business owners, for our future,” he says.

“Our government’s treating it like it’s a huge tax grab, but it’s actually not.”

The Ford government’s stickers lay out the price of the carbon tax on fuel, growing from 4.4 cents per litre in 2019 to 11 cents per litre by 2022.

However, Ontario families are eligible for rebates of $307 this year, rising to $718 per year by 2022. An April report from the Office of the Parliamentary Budget Officer found 80 per cent of Ontario households would get more money back from that rebate than they would be spending on the carbon tax.

CarbonTaxWorks is set to be at the Guelph Farmers’ Market on Sept. 7, where they will be distributing flyers and stickers. Lind says he hopes to see them as gas stations alongside the government's stickers.

"If (gas stations) want to put ours up too, we'd be really grateful," he says.

Free stickers can also be ordered online at carbontaxworks.ca.

Lind and his group are not the only ones looking to put out stickers of their own around the carbon tax.

In May, Guelph MPP and Ontario Green party leader Mike Schreiner unveiled stickers of his own, which would be free to gas stations and could be put alongside those being put out by the province.

The design of the new stickers is very similar to that of the Ford government’s stickers, but instead note things that many scientists have warned will happen should no action be taken regarding climate change, such as increasing temperatures and worsening floods, fires and storms.

The stickers from Schreiner and the Green Party for gas stations are free, and can be obtained online at climatecosts.ca.

While a number of stickers could be appearing on Ontario’s gas pumps in the near future, a different sticker had originally been proposed.

According to the Toronto Star, the Canadian Independent Petroleum Marketers Association proposed a different type of sticker — a voluntary one that would display a pie chart showing all of the things that go into the price of gas, including both provincial and federal taxes.

“The current image portrays one aspect of the price of gasoline and really doesn’t allow the consumer to have the full perspective,” Jennifer Stewart, the association’s president and CEO, told the Star.

The province reportedly shot down the idea. In April, when the stickers were first announced, Rickford said the stickers were designed to “stick it to the Liberals and remind the people of Ontario how much this job-killing regressive carbon tax costs.”

Michael Bryant, chief counsel for the Canadian Civil Liberties Association, told the Toronto Star last week that the group will be launching a legal challenge of the sticker program once the laws around them fully kick in.

“Forcing anyone to ape a political party line is an abuse of government power,” he told the Star.

“Fining dissent and compelling speech is a draconian, unconstitutional slap in the face of people and businesses forced to comply, or else.”

— with files from the Toronto Star