Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s carbon tax, which he has imposed on four provinces, increasingly looks as if it was written on the back of a napkin.

A case in point is the chaotic and unfair way it has been imposed on small and medium-sized business enterprises (SMEs) in Ontario, Saskatchewan, Manitoba and New Brunswick.

Distroscale

“On environmental policy, small businesses appear to be an afterthought for this government,” Dan Kelly, president of the Canadian Federation of Business (CFIB), said in a statement Thursday.

He was responding to an announcement by Environment and Climate Change Minister Catherine McKenna of two rebate programs ostensibly designed to help SMEs cope with the increased costs they face because of carbon taxes.

While McKenna announced a $1.4 billion, five-year program to help SMEs retrofit their businesses to make them more energy efficient, and to buy energy efficient equipment, Kelly condemned it as “too little, too late” and “a drop in the bucket.”

Story continues below This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below.

We apologize, but this video has failed to load.

tap here to see other videos from our team. Try refreshing your browser, or

“We’re entering month three of the carbon tax (which started April 1),” Kelly said, “and the government is just now announcing details of only one stream of the rebate program they promised to small businesses. They (SMEs) are now in the position of having to spend even more money just to get a fraction of their carbon taxes back.”

In fact, it’s going to take even longer for SMEs to benefit from the federal rebates announced Thursday — if they ever do.

With the election less than five months away, these rebates won’t even start until the Trudeau government passes its budget implementation bill, and issues regulations on the specifics of how the rebates will work.

In earlier criticism of Trudeau’s carbon tax, Kelly said it has been unfair to SMEs since its inception.

That because SMEs will contribute almost 50% of the carbon tax revenues the Trudeau government is using to subsidize consumers under its rebate program, he said, while also giving assistance to big industrial emitters to help them remain competitive.

By contrast, Kelly said, SMEs have been left to fend for themselves, with the government telling them to simply pass along the increased costs of the carbon tax to their customers.

This shows no understanding of how SMEs operate, Kelly said.

In a survey of 3,527 CFIB members in the four provinces where Trudeau imposed his carbon tax late last year, 80% said they would only be able to pass along less than 25% of their added costs to customers and remain competitive.

Story continues below This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below.

We apologize, but this video has failed to load.

tap here to see other videos from our team. Try refreshing your browser, or

More than half said they wouldn’t be able to pass along any of the new costs and will have to find savings elsewhere, such as by cutting staff in the sector of the economy that creates the most jobs.

The cavalier treatment of the Trudeau government with regard to the impact of his carbon tax on SMEs isn’t surprising given Trudeau’s bizarre statement during the 2015 election that “a large percentage of small businesses are actually just a way for wealthier Canadians to save on their taxes,” which was simply inaccurate.

While Trudeau did fulfill his election promise to reduce the small business tax rate to 9% from 11%, he and Finance Minister Bill Moreau also introduced controversial tax reforms for SMEs they only backed away from — albeit not completely — in the face of widespread opposition.

It’s as if Trudeau has no idea of the major contribution that SMEs make to job creation.

Then again, given his background, why would he?