Liberal and Conservative politicians not being honest about carbon taxes
By Letter to the Editor on June 4, 2021.
Editor:
When you got straight A’s on a report card, it’s a good bet you rushed home from the school bus to show your mom and dad. Maybe they even stuck it on the fridge. But if that report card was covered with F’s you probably weren’t that eager to bring it up at dinner time.
When it comes to their carbon tax plans, both Liberal and Conservative politicians are acting like the youngster who’s trying to hide their bad report card from their parents.
Politicians aren’t being truthful with taxpayers.
Before the last federal election, the Trudeau government told voters it had “no intention” of raising its carbon tax beyond $50 per tonne.
In the midst of COVID-19, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau promised not to raise taxes or costs.
A few months later, Trudeau then blindsided taxpayers and announced that he would hike the carbon tax to $170 per tonne by 2030 and layer on a second carbon tax through fuel regulations.
Conservative Party Leader Erin O’Toole also misled Canadians.
When he was running for party leader, he signed the Canadian Taxpayers Federation’s pledge to fight carbon taxes. The pledge was unequivocal:
“I will: Immediately repeal the Trudeau carbon tax; and, reject any future national carbon tax or cap-and-trade scheme.”
Less than a year after signing the pledge, O’Toole announced he would introduce a carbon tax of his own.
Why are party leaders hiding their true intentions from Canadians?
Maybe it’s because politicians know voters would give their carbon tax plans a failing grade?
More than half of Canadians don’t support plans to raise carbon taxes every year for the next nine years, according to a Leger poll commissioned by Secondstreet.org. The same poll showed that more than two thirds of Canadians oppose paying $20 in carbon taxes to fill up their car.
With the high taxes Canadians are already paying for fuel, there’s no wonder they don’t want politicians driving up the price of gas even higher.
Taxes already account for between 31 and 42 per cent of the price at the gas pumps when you factor in all the different provincial and federal gas and sales taxes, a potential transit tax and the carbon tax. In Montreal, drivers are hit with six different taxes when they fuel up.
The average total tax bill for each litre of gas in Canada is about 45 cents. That means a family is already being soaked for nearly $35 in taxes every time they fuel up their minivan. That’s equivalent to more than a $200 per tonne carbon tax, even before Trudeau and O’Toole hike the federal carbon tax any higher.
Despite lighter wallets, emissions continue to go up.
British Columbia has the highest carbon tax in Canada, but emissions have still gone up 11 per cent between 2015 and 2019. Canada’s emissions also increased during the first year of Trudeau’s federal carbon tax.
With Canadian emissions accounting for only 1.5 per cent of the global total, even if we completely eliminated emissions, it still wouldn’t do much for the global environment. Even Trudeau acknowledged this.
“If Canada stopped everything tomorrow, and the other countries didn’t have any solutions, it wouldn’t make a big difference,” Trudeau said on Tout Le Monde En Parle.
O’Toole also acknowledged that “there’s nothing inherent in a carbon tax that actually lowers greenhouse gas emissions” and that a carbon tax “is not a climate change plan, the carbon tax is a tax plan.”
Politicians owe taxpayers the truth. And the truth is that our already big tax bill at the pump is going up because politicians are breaking their carbon tax promises.
Franco Terrazzano
Federal Director of the Canadian Taxpayers Federation
-1
You would have to be profoundly naive to believe that our carbon tax is going to have any effect on climate change. Ok, ok, I digress..it will have about as much effect as a bringing a bucket of water to a raging house fire.
Our carbon tax is merely a tax to get more money out of us. To add insult to injury, it’s going to throw a significant amount of people into the poverty level.
The concept of carbon taxes in Canada came first from the ‘Conservatives.’ Even Preston Manning has been advising ‘Conservative’ leaders to stop dissing them. Where carbon taxes have been generating a decrease in carbon emissions and not negatively affecting their economy is Sweden…well worth researching. Their carbon tax was implemented long ago in 1991…they’re way ahead of us.
And this:
“Carbon Taxes and Rebates Explained(Province By Province)”
http://www.canadadrives.ca/blog/news/carbon-taxes-and-carbon-tax-rebates-in-Canada-explained
Did I say anything about what’s occurring in Sweden? Furthermore, are you able to refute my points or not?
BTW- Your link doesn’t work, and a refutation doesn’t mean some sort of theory on how it’s “supposed” to work. It also doesn’t mean a biased study that cherry picks facts and basically lies by omission.
It never hurts to educate oneself, with an open mind, on other’s successes and maybe even adopt other’s successes. This can be researched by oneself. I don’t see anything wrong with the above website address, but I can access it by typing the title into Google. Each province is listed separately. Cheers.
In other words, you can’t refute my points.
This is Seth Anthony. I was logged out of the site again, and it won’t produce a captcha to log me back in. This is the account I use when I can’t log in.
Again, Sweden’s carbon tax success, which is extensive, is easily available with one’s own research. Logging in again? Yes, the captcha can be a problem. Well, that sucks. Anyway, the carbon tax rebate for Albertans, is $444 for a single adult, $222 for the next adult and $111 per child, averaging about $888/family. Probably, peanuts for some but better than a kick in the pants. When Alberta had its own carbon tax there was a rebate for a stated low income, but the rest was invested back into the province to assist in diversifying our economy. Since carbon taxes are here to stay (even with the federal Conservatives), I believe Alberta should have kept our own carbon tax.
The rebate is “peanuts” compared to what we pay directly via this tax, and indirectly with a rise on cost for services and goods as businesses and corporations pass their carbon tax cost onto us. Part of the “indirect” will be significantly higher food costs.
Also, “invested back in Alberta”. So we pay money just to get it all back again! lol
Good grief do you ever stop blaming conservatives for anything and everything? Almost every of your comments are nothing but ridiculous banter blaming conservatives from rain to snow to wind to humidity, etc. Its always the bad conservatives fault for anything. You need help for your obvious hatred, angst and proclivity towards blaming and using the conservatives for all your problems and arguments you stumble through on these threads. Get some help you are making yourself look like a fool. By the way, what the heck does Sweden have to do with what we are doing in Canada other than perhaps making Swedish meatballs? Get a grip, a life and wake up to reality.
Nailed it.
Heck, for Southern, the letter’s issue doesn’t even have to have anything to do with the conservatives, but sure enough, Southern will blame it on the conservatives. According to him/her (I fully suspect “her”), everything the conservatives do is bad, and everything the ndp is good. In other words, totally narrow minded without an ounce of objectivity.
Then there’s Southern’s debating M.O of ad hominems, irrelevant arguments, and cherry picked facts that often lie by omission.
BTW1- The Sweden arguments via a carbon tax are not only irrelevant, but easily refuted. I might even do exactly that later today.
BTW2- The conservatives created the Corona virus! It’s true I tells ya’!
as much as i hate pollution, degradation of environment and habitats, creating a toxic mess, unsustainable approaches that benefit only the corporate stakeholders who are unaccountable for their disgusting practices…i acknowledge that carbon taxes, cap and trade, and other such bs do too little to nothing to save us. as for the “rebates”, they are great LOL – so long as you do not consume anything.
Yay, I can sign in again.
“So long as you don’t consume anything”. Ha ha exactly! No more food or heating your house Biff!
Good point on carbon taxes, cap and trade, etc, doing little to nothing about pollution. It’s just a “feel good” endeavor to make governments, corporations, and people look like they’re making a difference.
exactly – and another way for those already so privy to rake in more big money. no matter the century, the masses are always a net aggregate of morons.
just to say hi to fes! hoping you are well, and missing your input.
I’ve been wondering what happened to her as well.
haha – looks like you have a troll. why would anyone neg your comment?
I don’t know, but then again, I don’t care 🙂