THE BC United said on Thursday that an internal NDP memo from Josie Osborne, Minister of Energy, Mines, and Low Carbon Innovation, that they had obtained shows that Premier David Eby is panicking about growing opposition to the carbon tax and looking for “big and shiny” ideas that can be included in the next budget. It confirms the politicization of carbon tax revenues in an attempt do damage control on the failing NDP plan.

“Not only is this memo an admission from the NDP that they are not doing enough on affordability, it also proves they are willing to use the carbon tax as a political slush fund for partisan political gain,” said Tom Shypitka, BC United Critic for Energy, Mines, and Low Carbon Innovation.

The BC United said that elsewhere in the document, it’s revealed that the NDP is also attempting to coerce the private sector. According to the writer of the memo, government intends to apply “leverage” to Fortescue Future Industries, the clean-energy subsidiary of publicly-traded Australian-based company Fortescue Metals Group, in an attempt to get them to “scale down” their projects.

“We now have confirmation the NDP’s politicization of BC Hydro has led to a clean energy shortage, and they are scaling back projects and killing good jobs, in the middle of an affordability crisis, as a result,” added Shypitka. “This is exactly what our BC United Caucus has been warning government about for weeks — their climate plan will cost hundreds of thousands of jobs and shrink the economy. Clearly, the NDP’s ‘CostBC’ plan is in complete disarray, and no amount of ‘shiny’ political schemes can undo the damage it is already doing to B.C.”

READ: Minister Osborne Memo, November 22, 2023