Banks pressed on ‘carbon rebate’

Ottawa changing law so that financial institutions must rename deposits

This article was written by Mia Rabson and was published in the Toronto Star on April 20, 2024.

Canadian banks that refuse to identify the carbon rebate by name when doing direct deposits are forcing the government to change the law to make them do it, says Environment Minister Steven Guilbeault.

Guilbeault is taking the stand after Tuesday’s federal budget promised to amend the Financial Administration Act so government payments accepted for deposit at Canadian banks will carry whatever title the government wants.

“The fact that they haven’t been doing it now for many years led us to take this position,” Guilbeault said. His department has been battling with banks for almost two years over how carbon rebates are labelled when they are deposited directly into bank accounts.

The first rebate deposits in 2022 were labelled very generically — “federal payment” and “EFT Canada,” for example — which meant recipients had no idea why they were getting the money.

Some banks, but not all, have since amended their procedures to ensure bank statements reflect the measure’s new name: the “Canada Carbon Rebate.”

TD and BMO have adopted the government’s requested “CdaCarbonRebate” entry, which fits the 15character limit imposed by some banks. However, RBC and Scotiabank were unable to make the change in time for the rollout, although both say they intend to update to the new name.

CIBC, meanwhile, is still calling it “Deposit Canada.”

Guilbeault said the lack of a clear identifier isn’t the only thing fuelling confusion about carbon pricing, but is definitely part of the problem.

“I think we took it for granted that since people were receiving it, people knew they were receiving it,” Guilbeault said. “We’ve come to discover over the last few months that it wasn’t the case, in part because it the way it was labelled — or mislabelled, I should say — by most financial institutions.”

The government has struggled to fully explain the carbon price and the rebates since the policy began in 2019. That has helped the Conservatives, fastidiously opposed to carbon pricing, in their unrelenting efforts to kill it off once and for all.

Changing the law wouldn’t just affect carbon rebates, but all government deposits, including child benefits and tax refunds.

The government has struggled to fully explain the carbon price and the rebates since the policy began in 2019

Author: Ray Nakano

Ray is a retired, third generation Japanese Canadian born and raised in Hamilton, Ontario. He resides in Toronto where he worked for the Ontario Government for 28 years. Ray was ordained by Thich Nhat Hanh in 2011 and practises in the Plum Village tradition, supporting sanghas in their mindfulness practice. Ray is very concerned about our climate crisis. He has been actively involved with the ClimateFast group (https://climatefast.ca) for the past 5 years. He works to bring awareness of our climate crisis to others and motivate them to take action. He has created the myclimatechange.home.blog website, for tracking climate-related news articles, reports, and organizations. He has created mobilizecanada.ca to focus on what you can do to address the climate crisis. He is always looking for opportunities to reach out to communities, politicians, and governments to communicate about our climate crisis and what we need to do. He says: “Our world is in dire straits. We have to bend the curve on our heat-trapping pollutants in the next few years if we hope to avoid the most serious impacts of human-caused global warming. Doing nothing is not an option. We must do everything we can to create a livable future for our children, our grandchildren, and all future generations.”