The Federal Government's proposed carbon tax has been met with a lot of criticism from the Conservative Opposition, saying this tax will have "significantly damaging effects."

Part of the Liberal government's climate plan, the Federal Carbon Tax is an effort to reduce carbon emissions to combat climate change, But Conservative Member of Parliament for Banff-Airdrie, Blake Richards, says this is the opposite of what we need right now considering the struggling economy and natural resource sector.

"What we need is some positive signals from our government that they want to try and remove some of the barriers that there is for the industry; that they want to try and ensure there's an opportunity for the industry to succeed and grow."

"This idea of throwing a carbon tax on everything we buy, is only going to further harm the industry," says Richards, "This is just the absolutely wrong direction that we need to be going right now and it's slapping additional taxes on a Province and an industry that's already hurting."

Richards adds that creating a Federal Carbon Tax also creates an uncertain investment climate for those who would invest in the natural resources industry. This not only affects employment rates and job creation now but, according to Richards, it can have "ripple effects for years and years into the future."

On top of the the NDP's Provincial Carbon Tax, a Federal version would increase living costs for Albertans even more, such as the price of heating our homes and putting fuel in our vehicles.

Member of Parliament for Lakeland, Shannon Stubbs, has recently started a petition to combat the Federal Carbon Tax which can be found here.