Last year, global temperatures fell more sharply than any year on record. The drop of 0.65 to 0.75 degrees in 2007 offset all global warming that had occurred in the previous century. In fact, data from NASA shows the earth has been cooling since 2002 even though carbon emissions have risen at least 15 percent since then. Unfortunately, no one seems to have told Stephane Dion. The Liberal Leader recently changed his policy and proposed massive tax changes to reduce carbon emissions and supposed global warming.
Under Dion's Green Shift plan, the federal government would impose a tax of $40 per tonne of carbon dioxide released into the atmosphere. Although gasoline would be exempt, propane, natural gas, heating oil, and diesel fuel would get slapped with levies, as would power generated from coal-fired plants. The tax grab would total $15.3 billion.
But the real number is zero, according to Dion. The "shift" part of the plan means that income taxes and business taxes would drop. Parents, low-income workers, and rural and northern residents would also get a special break. Dion claims the net result would be "revenue neutral"--for the government at least.
But, make no mistake, what may be "revenue neutral" for Ottawa will not be revenue neutral for all taxpayers. Low-income Canadians spend a high percentage of their income on heating bills and will feel the pinch, especially if they don't get the child tax credit. But the greatest impact will be clearly be felt in Saskatchewan and Alberta, who have a combined share of 40 percent of the country's greenhouse gas emissions.
"The National Energy Program was designed to screw the West and really damage the energy sector and this will do those things," Prime Minister Harper said June 19 in Saskatoon. "But this is different. It will actually screw everybody across the country."
Premier Wall is equally adamant. At the western premiers' conference in Prince Albert, he said a Canadian carbon tax would "kneecap" Saskatchewan, since our province produces nine percent of Canada's greenhouse gas emissions with just three per cent of the population and economy.
"Let's not pursue national policies that will restrict the opportunity or the growth of the parts of the Canadian economy that are working very well in Western Canada," Wall said. "Those are national opportunities."
Indeed they are. Strangely, this was lost on the premier of British Columbia. Gordon Campbell announced a carbon tax in his last budget, but sent each taxpayer $100 prior to its implementation on Canada Day. That tax charges $10 per tonne for all carbon emissions, going up to $30 per tonne by 2012. By then a litre of gas will be up 7.4 cents. The tax is widely unpopular and will be even more so after residents in the interior and north have to heat their homes this winter.
Undaunted, Dion pushes forward, arguing against many in his own party and even himself. In March 2007, he released "Building a Sustainable Future for Canada, Stephane Dion's Energy & Climate Change Plan." There, Dion explained that "soaring prices make anything but a prohibitively high tax a mere nuisance for large producers." Why the flip-flop? Dion says his "thinking evolved."
Fortunately, this de-volution isn't catching on. The "Green Shaft" plan has been condemned by a wide spectrum that includes the NDP, businesspeople, truckers, and a raft of columnists across the country. This outcry is completely deserved. While dubious in its prospects for environmental change, Dion's plan threatens the Canadian economy and the wallets of low-income and western Canadians.
