More than 1 million rebates issued for Alberta carbon tax

Just over one million Alberta individuals and families received rebates on the province's new carbon tax last week, the province announced Tuesday.

The 1.13 million payments were issued to low- and middle-income singles and families via cheque and direct deposit on Jan. 5. In total, the rebates were approximately $138 million.

The government says views on its climate web pageshave jumped from 4,000 to 40,000 a day.

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The $20 per tonnecarbon levy, which went into effect Jan. 1, has been controversial since it was introduced last year. Opposition politicians say it will hurt Albertansat a time when the economy is struggling.

But the government argues that measures like the carbon tax paved the way for the approvals of the Kinder Morgan Trans Mountain pipeline and the Enbridge Line 3 pipeline replacement projectin November.

The government estimated about 60 per cent of Albertans will get a full rebate. But due to the way the rebates will be paid, the 60 per cent total will not be reached until the government has gone through a full year of payments.

The rebates are paid in January, April, July and October. People who qualify for $400 or more will get payments every quarter; people expecting between $200 to $399 will see payments in January and July. People getting $100 to $199 will receive their full annual rebate in January.

The government will not be paying rebates under $100.

Not everyone in Alberta qualifies for a rebate.

Families with combined net incomes below $95,000 qualify for the full amount. Some Albertans will get partial rebates. Those amounts will drop to zero as household incomes reach $100,000 for a couple, $101,500 for a couple with two kids and $103,000 for a couple with four kids.

Single adults earning below $47,500 will receive a $200 rebate in 2017. People earning $51,250 or more will not qualify.

For families, including couples with no children, the rebate starts at $300 and can go as high as $420 for a couple with four kids or a single parent with five kids.