OK so the Liberals are evil, Gordon Campbell is a crappy premier, Kevin Falcon is the Transport Minister from HELL. However, the Liberals have to be at least patted on the back in some small way for bringing in their version of a Carbon Tax.
Is this Carbon Tax the best it can be ? NO Could the Liberals do it better ? YES. However, since this is the first of its kind in North America, who are we to complain about the why's and the wherefores ? Bring it on !
What could do be done much better is sell the tax to British Columbian's is to highlight the carbon tax's revenue neutral benefits, which are lets face it somewhat fuzzy in the legislation. The idea being that British Columbian's see the benefit of paying more tax on their carbon emitting devices, reduce their use and pay less tax. The Liberals are promising to give us all $100 as they rake in millions from the tax. British Columbia's tax payers need to know where the money is going.
Paying off the debt or paying off the 2010 Olympics is simply unacceptable. The point of the Carbon Tax is to change behaviour in order to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, if the revenue is spent on other things, then this is not a Carbon Tax at all.
Needless to say the BC NDP have totally dropped the ball on the Carbon Tax issue. Instead of dismissing the tax, the NDP should be taking leadership by suggesting amendments in order to garner support with the BC legislature. Once again, as with the Gateway Plan, we see Carole James and the NDP true colours and there is little or no green to be seen.
Carbon Taxes DO work when implemented correctly and the revenues are directed to reduce carbon emissions - hopefully the leaders of the Liberals and NDP will figure this out sooner or later.
Wednesday, June 04, 2008
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The truth is, this gas tax is meaningless. It won't reduce car use. It is tokenism, and it is being used to cover up the brown policies of this government.
Cheering on Campbell's half-baked carbon tax while ignoring real issues like oil tankers, coalbed methane, pipelines, the wholesale sell-off of our rivers, and the continuing slaughter of southern salmon runs because of open pen fish farms is doing the environment no favours.
I think it is disingenuous to suggest that Carole James and the NDP are not green because they don't support an ineffective and punitive measure such as a gas tax.
The simple fact of the matter is people aren't driving just to spite environmentalists, they are driving because there simply aren't any other reasonable options for many people, especially families and the elderly.
Aside from personal driving there are lots of other issues to consider, for example, food.
I think food is a great way to bring attention to the problem with this gas tax. I live in the north, and the reality is that most of our food is trucked in from a great distance.
Now, the Campbell Liberals have done nothing to ensure that this gas tax won't make my groceries even more expensive, and you know what? I can't stop eating, and the reality is there is not enough local food to feed even a fraction of us for part of the year.
I don't drive. I walk and ride my bike. I have never driven in my life. I fly infrequently. Yet, I still have to eat. No matter how expensive it gets, I am not going to stop eating, which means that the gas tax will punish me for not stopping a behavior I cannot control, and do absolutely nothing, NOTHING, to remove one iota of carbon from the atmosphere.
I would like to see more local agriculture be developed, but farmers in British Columbia are already being driven out of business, and a gas tax will only make it harder for new operations to start up.
The Liberals also brought in new rules around meat processing that make it even harder for local agriculture to survive. By making it illegal to buy home raised meat from our neighbors, the Campbell government is ensuring that food self-sufficiency will never happen in the north. The only way someone on the Queen Charlotte Islands, for example, can legally produce meat for sale is by ferrying cattle over the Hecate straight, and trucking them hundreds of miles to a government approved processor, then trucking/ferrying them back. How much carbon do you think this adds to the atmosphere?
I'm an ardent environmentalist. I care very deeply for the natural world, that is why I find it very hard to swallow when I read people giving the Campbell government environmental accolaides, even though I see the evidence of their harmful policies all around me.
If the Campbell government was serious about reducing greenhouse gas emissions they would have put a tax on coal mined in the Elk Valley and shipped to China to be burned in dirty power plants. The gas tax won't make Teck Cominco, a major Liberal donor, lose a dime.
$412,870 was donated to the Liberal party by this company, a major coal producer. I wonder if that is why there is no tax on the emissions caused by coal mined in BC?
Let's talk about some other dirty brown Liberal policies, shall we?
The Liberals are quick to brag that they are breaking records for the oil and gas exploitation rights they have sold this year and last. If they want to reduce emissions why are they encouraging companies to come here and mine fossil fuels, using taxpayer money (more than 300 million) to subsidize the richest companies in the world in the process?
Wouldn't it make more sense for a government that was bent on going green to say, use that 300 million to offer incentives to local food producers, instead of paying oil and gas companies?
The Liberals want to pave over Burns Bog to build more highways and expand Deltaport. If they thought the gas tax was actually going to WORK, that is GET PEOPLE OUT OF THEIR CARS, would they be out trying to build more highways?
The truth is, Carole James and the NDP are working on the issues that matter. Instead of focusing on a broad stroke policy that makes a good healine but does nothing to help the environment, the NDP team is working to address issues like habitat conservation, sustainable agriculture, and protection of our waterways.
Carole James has been consulting with people across the province and learning about the ways that we interact with the environment and the atmosphere. By doing so she is building local solutions to environmental issues that work for individuals, regions, and communities.
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