Canada is a carbon sink so we shouldn’t be paying a tax on it
By Lethbridge Herald on April 1, 2023.
Editor:
It’s true that there were vehicles back in the 1980’s and 1990’s that made better mileage.
My parents had a Geo that also made 60+ miles per gallon. But like all good things it was discontinued as well.
My letter was dealing with the so-called modern vehicles. When the so called new laws came in during the 1970s-1980s, cars were supposed to get better mileage. That didn’t happen and now we have carbon tax.
This is a carbon tax on a country that has 990 million acres of trees. Each acre takes out 2.246 tonnes of carbon out of the air each year.
If you believe the science, we have about 160 million acres of wetlands that also take carbon from the air but some acres release methane.
Then there are 170 million acres approximately of farm land also taking out carbon from the air.
We are a net carbon sink as through industry and domestic use we only produce 880 million tonnes of carbon per yet so why are we paying a carbon tax? The world should pay us!
I got these figures from an article from four years ago.
And I agree the more complicated things are the easier it is to plug up the works!
One thing though – how are people who have lower incomes going to be able to afford the new hybrid cars and trucks? They are expensive.
With the government saying we should be hybrid electric by 2030-2035, no one but the real rich are going to afford the new vehicles.
Dale. E. Finley
Lethbridge
15-14
The carbon tax is nothing more than that, a tax. Our Trudeau government penalizes us for heating our homes in winter.
Yes we are very much a carbon neutral or negative country. But that is not what this is all about, the truth is we have to take care of the rest of the world or our leaders will try and make us feel bad as we are not doing our part. negativity today gets people divided just where they want us to be. This has never been about science.
I doubt the leaders of China, India, Russia, and Brazil (all huge polluters) are going to listen to Canada.
As far as I remember there are only two carbon negative countries on the planet:
Bhutan, and Suriname.
It also needs to be pointed out that Canada’s forests have been a net emitter since 2001-2002. As tress don’t absorb carbon when they rot or burn…and guess what’s been happening to our forests a lot in the last two decades?
But politicians, and climate deniers have been lobbying to have tree death (*ahem* Pine Beetle for instance) and forest fires removed from our emissions calculations.
In other words: Coat the “net absorber” story with a nice layer of BS and you have what is being touted by people that don’t see the truth of it.
The difficulty with the present mindset McK is that the “tax” Canadians are forced to pay on the most basic necessities of life [ food, warm shelter…anything transported] does absolutely nothing to address the issues of climate change. It is a tax pure and simple. Every time you fill up your tank , charge your EV or your furnace kicks in , your wallet drains and China builds another coal fired plant fueled by BC coal.
A REAL solution to climate issus would require world consensus and definitive action by all nations. That is NOT going to happen. We can turn Canada into a 1800’s agrarian state tomorrow and no one will change their behaviour elsewhere.
The virtue signalers in Ottawa are flinging the BS and sadly too many people are seemingly content to roll around in it because it makes them “feel good”.
Sorry to have injected a bit of reality into this conversation….
I’ll agree with you on the tax being used for necessities of life is unfair but Chinese power plants don’t use B.C. coal. B.C. coal is 95% metallurgical not thermal unlike the coal mines that were being planned on the east slopes which were thermal coal.
Where does all the coal go from Westport and for what use
The carbon tax is nothing more than an increase to the GST without calling it one.
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