The Canada carbon rebate after 2025
The quarterly carbon rebate, once called the climate action incentive payment, no longer exists, and nothing new has taken its place for households.
Checked by Radif Partners · Editorial policy · Method
The Canada carbon rebate has not been paid since April 2025: the federal government stopped the fuel charge and the rebate for individuals on March 15, 2025, and the CRA has said there will be no further quarterly payments. In 2026, nobody receives a carbon rebate for current fuel costs. The rebate, called the climate action incentive payment until it was renamed, was a tax-free amount meant to offset the cost of federal pollution pricing, made of a basic amount and a supplement for residents of small and rural communities. Because the charge it offset was removed at the same time, no replacement payment was created for households. One exception remains: people who were eligible but never filed their tax returns for 2021, 2022, 2023 and 2024 can still file them and receive the rebate for those years once the returns are assessed. The Canada Groceries and Essentials Benefit, raised by 25 % in July 2026, is a separate benefit, the former GST/HST credit, and should not be mistaken for a successor.
What still reaches your account without the rebate
Carbon rebate paid in 2026
$0
| CGEB, each quarter (a separate benefit) | $173.90 |
| Child benefit, each month | $475.80 |
| Both over July 2026 to June 2027 | $6,405 |
Neither benefit replaces the rebate: both existed before it ended and are based on income, not on fuel costs.
What ended, and when
The CRA carbon rebate page sums it up in two sentences. On March 15, 2025, the Government of Canada stopped the federal fuel charge and the Canada carbon rebate for individuals. There will be no further quarterly payments after the April 2025 payment. The exact day of that final deposit is not on the page we read, so we do not give it here.
The rebate was a tax-free amount, paid four times a year to eligible individuals and families in the provinces where the federal fuel charge applied. It had a basic amount and a supplement for residents of small and rural communities. Both parts ended together, so there is no rural top-up left either, even for households far from a city. Until it was renamed, it was called the climate action incentive payment, which is why both names still circulate in searches and on old notices.
Why there is no replacement for households
The rebate existed to give back the federal fuel charge. When the charge stopped being collected, there was nothing left to give back, and the rebate ended on the same day. The government did not create a new household payment in its place, and the CRA page on the rebate names no successor. In plain terms: a household that used to receive the rebate now pays no federal fuel charge and receives no rebate.
The confusion comes from timing. In July 2026, a little more than a year after the last rebate, the GST/HST credit became the Canada Groceries and Essentials Benefit and rose by 25 % for five years, as the CRA benefit page explains. Like the rebate, it is a quarterly, tax-free CRA deposit, so it can look like the same thing on a bank statement. It is not: it is an income-tested benefit for low and modest incomes everywhere in Canada, and it was paid before the rebate ended. The guide to the groceries benefit gives its amounts.
What a household still receives each quarter
For a couple with two children aged 6 to 17 and a family net income of $60,000, the quarterly CRA deposit in 2026-2027 is the groceries benefit alone: $169.90 each quarter, $679.60 for the year. The same family receives $902.33 a month of child benefit. Neither amount has anything to do with fuel: both depend on the 2025 return, and both would be paid in exactly the same way had the rebate never existed.
The calendar since the last rebate
| When | What happened |
|---|---|
| March 15, 2025 | Federal fuel charge and Canada carbon rebate for individuals stopped |
| April 2025 | Last quarterly carbon rebate; last B.C. climate action tax credit |
| June 5, 2026 | One-time GST/HST credit top-up (not linked to the rebate) |
| July 3, 2026 | First payment of the Canada Groceries and Essentials Benefit |
| October 5, 2026 | Second CGEB payment |
Households that used to see a rebate at the start of each quarter now have a single quarterly deposit on a similar rhythm, the groceries benefit, but its amount follows income only. A couple whose income rose in 2025 can see that deposit shrink in July 2026 even though nothing changed at the pump, and a single person above $46,432 sees it fade quickly. Budgets built around four rebate payments a year need a new line: the old amount is gone for good, not paused.
What still reaches your account without the rebate
Carbon rebate paid in 2026
$0
| CGEB, each quarter (a separate benefit) | $173.90 |
| Child benefit, each month | $475.80 |
| Both over July 2026 to June 2027 | $6,405 |
Neither benefit replaces the rebate: both existed before it ended and are based on income, not on fuel costs.
The exception: unfiled returns
The rebate is not entirely in the past for people who missed their tax returns. According to the CRA page for late filers, someone who was eligible but has not yet filed for 2021, 2022, 2023 and 2024 can still receive the payments once the returns are assessed. The return must be filed even with no income to report. Newcomers had to complete forms RC66, RC66SCH or RC151, depending on their situation. The page sets no deadline. Residents do not apply: the CRA determines eligibility and calculates the amount itself when it assesses the return, so there is nothing to claim on a separate line.
The B.C. credit and the business rebate
Two related programs ended in the same period. British Columbia’s own climate action tax credit, paid with the federal GST/HST credit, made its final payment in April 2025, as the B.C. government confirms; the B.C. page covers what remains for families there. The Canada carbon rebate for small businesses, a separate program, is listed as closed by the CRA. Neither has a household successor either.
Checking an unexpected deposit
A deposit labelled as a carbon rebate in 2026 should be checked in My Account: it can only be a late payment for one of the years still open. Everything else the CRA pays each quarter belongs to another program. Messages that offer a new carbon rebate in exchange for banking details do not come from the CRA. The amounts you are entitled to are those on your CRA notices.