Daniel Smith, Sparring the Ottawa Carbon Tax

Alberta Premier Danielle Smith is among a group of conservative provincial leaders who continue to oppose a federal carbon tax hike after Prime Minister Justin Trudeau accused them of “not telling the truth.”

The prime minister said Wednesday that opponents of his pollution pricing are “misleading Canadians” when they failed to recognize that the April 1 price hike will coincide with an increase in the quarterly federal household allowance.

But according to Smith, this relief is still not enough.

“Since the carbon tax is not returned to the business, every small business has to take the cost of this fuel and heat natural gas (and) add it to their price.”

“So it's inflationary.”

Tensions were high on Parliament Hill as opposition to the Conservative-led carbon tax grew, ahead of a hike that would see the $65 per tonne carbon price rise to $80 per tonne.

The premiers of New Brunswick, Nova Scotia and Saskatchewan joined Smith in releasing letters asking him to appear before the Liberal-led House of Representatives finance committee to voice their concerns.

Their plea was ignored – MPs are not in session this week and many committees have no scheduled meetings – as Conservative MP and chair of the government's operations and evaluations committee Kelly McCauley decided to call them instead.

Smith will appear Thursday morning.

Does a carbon tax work?

Trudeau and his government have long insisted that the pricing model is effective.

“Not only are we fighting climate change and reducing emissions, we're putting more money in families' pockets,” he said Wednesday.

Both of these points have been disputed – but this first one is more difficult to analyze.

Only a few studies have examined the impact of policy on emissions reductions, and the vast majority have focused on European countries.

When CTV News asked a Calgary economist if the levy would help fight the climate emergency, he responded with a terse “sort of.”

“Given time, this will lead to a reduction in consumption and a transition to clean energy,” said Moshe Lander, an economics professor at the University of Calgary.

“But in the short term, very little will change as people become locked out of natural gas suppliers and depend on their cars.”

The tax is not Canada's only climate policy, and as a result, it is difficult to quantify the changes people will make as it is not easy to measure.

Between 2019 and 2021 – after the carbon price was first used and the most recent year for which data is available – Canada's emissions fell by a total of 53 million tonnes, but it's hard to say how much of that was due to the carbon price.

Lander argues that years of political infighting have soured perceptions — and the opposition isn't the only one to blame.

“(The federal government) has completely misunderstood what the goal is here and how to sell it to Canadians, and that leaves room for other parties who want to get away with it,” Lander said. “It's just anger and a bad salesman.”

With files from Rachel Aiello of CTVNews.ca