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.
B.C.Õs new carbon tax will supposedly change peopleÕs behaviour so the province can reach its greenhouse gas reduction goals. To keep the squealing about the new tax to a minimum, the government is bribing people with a $100 cheque. Just in case they are still unconvinced about what a good idea this tax is, the government will spend another $15 million to educate them about the same. Why the bribe and sell job? For starters, the new B.C. budget rejected the main recommendation of the legislatureÕs pre-budget consultation committee. A group of MLAs from both parties found that input from 5,800 British Columbians identified a growing economy and debt reduction as priorities, ahead of climate change spending. Yet British Columbians were handed a $1.85 billion carbon tax, $1 billion in climate change spending and a bigger debt. The government forecasts the provincial debt to go up by 13 per cent over the next three years. It is already spending $6 million per day on debt interest payments. In the future, even more money will be paid to bondholders instead of being invested into areas such as hospitals or allowing for more tax relief. In an effort to stop any grass-root objections to the carbon tax Ð especially when gasoline prices may top $1.50 per litre this summer Ð the government is giving every person in B.C. a one-time payoff of $100. Of course, sending British Columbians their own tax dollars back to themselves costs even more tax dollars. It can be expected to cost about $8.2 million. So, by just how much is the carbon tax expected to reduce emissions? By about three million tonnes from where they would have been in 2020. Three million tonnes is 0.01 per cent of global and 5.5 per cent of B.C.Õs current carbon emissions. This three million tonne reduction is only 7.5 per cent of the 40 million tonnes the B.C. government is forcing British Columbians, through legislation, to reduce carbon emissions by. The carbon tax is only the tip of the proverbial iceberg. The B.C. government has no mandate to implement a carbon tax and spend billions on climate change policies that will have a negligible effect. LetÕs keep in mind that B.C. accounts for less than one per cent of the worldÕs and only nine per cent of CanadaÕs carbon emissions. This policy will hurt B.C.Õs economy, make people poorer through higher energy costs, and ultimately reduce peopleÕs ability to make environmentally-friendly decisions.
