Premier Doug Ford will hose gasoline stations with fines of up to $10,000 a day unless they slap oversized Ontario government stickers on pumps warning about the cost of federal carbon-pricing measures.The hefty cash penalties were buried in the 283-page budget bill tabled Thursday by Finance Minister Vic Fedeli when he unveiled the Progressive Conservatives’ record $163.4-billion spending plan.“We will be doing everything we can, including through the court system to fight this job-killing carbon tax. We will be putting stickers on gas pumps that show just how much Justin Trudeau is taking out of your pocket,” Fedeli said Friday in Ajax.The 15 cm by 20 cm Tory blue stickers read: “The federal carbon tax will cost you.”But it will be gas station owners facing sticker shock at the pumps if they refuse to post them.For an independent operator, a first offence will lead to a daily fine of up to $500, rising to as much as $1,000 a day until the stickers are posted. Corporate-owned stations would face initial fines of up to $5,000 a day, jumping to as much as $10,000 daily for subsequent breaches.It’s estimated there are some 30,000 individual pumps in the province that would require a sticker.In an email, the Canadian Fuels Association, which represents the industry, said it would “not be commenting at this time.”The Tories are still determining how much the sticker program would cost taxpayers. Ford’s office emphasized the stickers will not be produced by the premier’s family’s label company.Federal Environment Minister Catherine McKenna said “Ford is wasting taxpayers’ dollars misleading Ontarians about our plan.”“The premier will be wasting money on stickers that do not include the amount of money Ontarians are getting back from the Climate Action Incentive rebate, and the cost of inaction on climate change,” said McKenna, dismissing the decals as “misleading pol ...
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