OTTAWA—More than 7.7 million people and households have claimed the federal carbon price rebate, a tally that includes almost all eligible recipients that have filed taxes so far this year, the Canada Revenue Agency says.

Responding to questions from the Star this week, the agency confirmed the number of tax filers who neglected to claim the rebate — designed to distribute revenue from the carbon price back to residents in — is “very small.”

Of an estimated 7.9 million “families” eligible for the rebates who filed taxes by May 21, more than 7.7 million, or 97 per cent, claimed the payouts that Ottawa has dubbed “Climate Action Incentives,” according to an emailed response from the revenue agency. (The agency uses the term “family” because people with a spouse, common-law partner and children receive a single rebate for their entire household.)

The agency expects the number to rise to about nine million “families” as self-employed Canadians and late filers submit their tax returns over the coming weeks.

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Federal Environment Minister Catherine McKenna’s office greeted the news as evidence that the government’s effort to inform eligible residents about the refunds is working, despite “misleading” messages about Liberal carbon price plan from Conservative opponents. In recent weeks, the Liberal government in Ottawa has accused opposition Conservatives and the Ontario government of misleading Canadians by neglecting to mention the carbon price refunds when they criticize the policy.

“It is encouraging that Canadians are claiming the Climate Action Incentive rebate, despite Doug Ford and Andrew Scheer’s efforts to fool Canadians about our plan with misleading flyers, stickers and partisan advertisements reminiscent of the Harper government,” said Sabrina Kim, McKenna’s press secretary, in an email Friday.

“Canadians deserve to know the facts,” she said. “To omit this information could cost a family hundreds of dollars if they are tricked into not claiming what they are entitled to; it is like taking money out of their pocket.”

The carbon price rebates are at the centre of a messaging battle over the merits of the federal carbon price, which includes a levy on fuel and a performance standard system for industrial polluters. This federal “backstop” has been imposed in four provinces — Ontario, New Brunswick, Manitoba and Saskatchewan — that refused to develop their own carbon prices to Ottawa’s minimum standard.

The price kicked in at $20 per tonne of emissions, and will jump to $50 per tonne in 2022.

That translates to an extra 4.4 cents per litre on gas in 2019, rising to an extra 11 cents per litre in 2022.

In April, shortly after the fuel levy came into effect, the federal Conservatives sent out booklets reminding constituents about the suite of rebates they can claim on their taxes.

But the booklets did not mention the carbon price refund, an omission that Liberal MP Rob Oliphant called “atrocious.”

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Then, earlier this month, Ontario’s Progressive Conservative government unveiled the first television spot in the province’s $30-million advertising push against what Premier Doug Ford calls the federal government’s “job killing carbon tax.” The ad shows loose nickels tumbling off grocery shelves, through a heating vent and out the nozzle of a pump at a gas station. The ad claims the carbon price “will cost Ontario families $648 a year.”

Just as the federal Tory booklets do, the ad neglects to mention the carbon price rebates. The Ontario government is also mandating that gas stations post stickers showing how much the federal carbon price will add to the cost of fuel, but the stickers don’t say anything about the federal rebates.

A family of four in Ontario, with two adults and two kids, will get $307 back on their rebate this year and $718 back in 2022, according to the federal government.

In a report published last month, the Parliamentary Budget Officer determined 80 per cent of households will get back more than they pay each year. The budget officer predicts the average household in Ontario will come out with an extra $37 this year, and an extra $81 in 2022.

With files from Robert Benzie and The Canadian Press

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