The Reminder is making its archives back to 2003 available on our website. Please note that, due to technical limitations, archive articles are presented without the usual formatting.
From The Toronto Star Everybody talks about global warming, but the government of British Columbia is the first jurisdiction in Canada to take a significant step toward doing something about it. In its new provincial budget, Premier Gordon CampbellÕs Liberal government introduced the first full-fledged carbon tax in North America, thereby putting a real price on the greenhouse gas emissions that come from burning fossil fuels. Highlighting the degree of disarray in this country over global warming, B.C.Õs new carbon tax comes only weeks after Premier Ed Stelmach of neighbouring Alberta (source of almost one-third of CanadaÕs greenhouse gas emissions) walked out of a premiersÕ meeting convened to discuss climate change. The blame for the incoherent muddle of provincial policies on the most pressing problem facing the planet rests ultimately with Prime Minister Stephen HarperÕs government, which has yet to take any concrete action or demonstrate any real leadership on the issue. Frustrated by that vacuum at the centre, B.C. decided to strike out on its own. As Finance Minister Carole Taylor put it in her budget speech, ÒItÕs our decision that we must start now to take action if weÕre to accomplish our goalÓ (to cut emissions by one-third within 12 years). Her plan has much to recommend it. Phased in over five years to give consumers and businesses alike time to adjust, the tax starts off at $10 per tonne of carbon-equivalent emissions, and rises by $5 per year for the next four years. For drivers, that amounts to an extra 2.4 cents per litre of gasoline, rising to 7.2 cents by 2012. For those who learn to conserve and use fuels more efficiently, however, the cost will not be nearly as large as it might first appear because the government has committed to return all the revenue collected through the carbon tax to taxpayers in the form of personal and corporate income tax cuts. And to protect low-income British Columbians who might not benefit from income tax cuts, Taylor has also introduced an annual credit of $100 per adult and $30 per child. But rather than a checkerboard approach to global warming with each province adopting its own measures, it would be preferable if the federal government produced a national policy. Better still if the United States, Canada and Mexico could agree on a continental policy.
