Federal Conservative leader Erin O'Toole surprised a lot of people last week when he announced a kind of carbon tax as his party's policy on climate change and the environment.

Foothills MP John Barlow says he was among the surprised.

"I wasn't privy to it beforehand so I didn't have a chance to provide input on it, so I'm going to take this to my constituents and get feedback on it, I've been adamantly opposed to a carbon tax and my position on that certainly has not changed," he says.

Barlow says a survey his office did a couple of years ago showed close to 98 percent of over three thousand respondents were opposed to a carbon tax and he doesn't think that's changed much since then.

Part of the policy calls for a kind of savings account that would grow the more people gassed up or paid for heating or other carbon-producing emissions.

"I guess the idea is that the money in the savings account would be used to lower your carbon footprint by investing in new windows or an energy-efficient furnace, those types of things so you'll reduce your carbon footprint on the back end, but again I've been pretty honest with my constituents that I do not support a carbon tax or a carbon levy so I'm looking forward to having feedback and discussions with my constituents on what recommendations I'll bring back to the leader on this," Barlow says.

He says it's important that the party had something to present to Canadians and this is a good start and now he awaits their feedback

Barlow says it's already started coming in.

 

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