Canadians Ready For a Carbon Tax, but not the Liberal Party
The insistence of the Liberal Party in continuing to avoid calling their plan a carbon tax is becoming rather entertaining.
David Suzuki was on Question Period today claiming that Canadians are ready for a carbon tax. I agree with him. I fully support the idea that the polluter should pay a tax. Some of us normal people call it Corporate Responsibility...
Anyway, our fearless leader followed Suzuki in touting our Green Deposit, (It used to be an investment account…like ING…SAVE YOUR CREDITS!)
"It's a deposit that the companies will have to give to the environmental bank -- and they will have this money back if they decrease their emissions," Dion told Question Period co-host Jane Taber.
"It's like when you have your bottle of Coca-Cola and you bring it back to the grocery store. You get your money back. It's not a tax."
The fact that the same principle applies to income taxes (fulfill conditions and get refund) is irrelevant to my argument but worth mentioning.
It was Dion’s other comment that caused my mother and me to look at each other and burst out laughing.
The environmental bank!
Canadians hate banks...they dont need another one...we should just tax big bad polluters instead.
However, my mother and I had fun imagining how this environment bank would work...
Does it sound like a giant tree house to you guys too? That is how I picture it. Is the Environmental Tree House Bank going to have branches? Are they going to put their ATMs in trees?
Will there be ATM fees? (big selling point for Joke Layton)
What is an environmental credit? Is it printed on recycled paper? Are there denominations? Which bill has the picture of Elizabeth May on it?
Most importantly, what is this tree house bank gonna cost to set up, and are the estimates going to be given in Allan Rock numbers?
Just listen to David Suzuki, copy him again if you have to, and call this thing a tax, and please never say something as pie-in-the-sky as environmental bank ever again.
David Suzuki was on Question Period today claiming that Canadians are ready for a carbon tax. I agree with him. I fully support the idea that the polluter should pay a tax. Some of us normal people call it Corporate Responsibility...
Anyway, our fearless leader followed Suzuki in touting our Green Deposit, (It used to be an investment account…like ING…SAVE YOUR CREDITS!)
"It's a deposit that the companies will have to give to the environmental bank -- and they will have this money back if they decrease their emissions," Dion told Question Period co-host Jane Taber.
"It's like when you have your bottle of Coca-Cola and you bring it back to the grocery store. You get your money back. It's not a tax."
The fact that the same principle applies to income taxes (fulfill conditions and get refund) is irrelevant to my argument but worth mentioning.
It was Dion’s other comment that caused my mother and me to look at each other and burst out laughing.
The environmental bank!
Canadians hate banks...they dont need another one...we should just tax big bad polluters instead.
However, my mother and I had fun imagining how this environment bank would work...
Does it sound like a giant tree house to you guys too? That is how I picture it. Is the Environmental Tree House Bank going to have branches? Are they going to put their ATMs in trees?
Will there be ATM fees? (big selling point for Joke Layton)
What is an environmental credit? Is it printed on recycled paper? Are there denominations? Which bill has the picture of Elizabeth May on it?
Most importantly, what is this tree house bank gonna cost to set up, and are the estimates going to be given in Allan Rock numbers?
Just listen to David Suzuki, copy him again if you have to, and call this thing a tax, and please never say something as pie-in-the-sky as environmental bank ever again.
par / by Anthony à / at 3:32 p.m.
12 Commentaires:
I wonder, how big of a tax on gasoline would you be prepared to fight an election with?
10 cents? 50 cents? A dollar a litre?
CTV had an online poll with the following question:
Would you be willing to pay a carbon tax?
Results:
Yes: 1209 votes ( 23% )
No: 3986 votes ( 77% )
I did some calculations a while back, and if I recall correctly, a gas tax would have to be about $1.60 per liter before it would be worth my while to drive a Prius over a similar car that only got 30 mpg.
The premium on the energy efficient car is just too high.
And then we find out that a Prius is actually one of the worst cars for carbon emissions over it's life cycle, due to the manufacturing requirements of the batteries.
So in reality, if a product were to be appropriately taxed for all of the carbon emitted during the manufacturing required to produce it, the cost of a Prius would go up more than the cost of a conventional vehicle. Putting more of a premium on the supposed "green" car, and requiring a higher carbon tax on gas to justify purchasing it economically.
And the Prius has a shorter lifespan than a conventional car, meaning more have to be manufactured for the same number of miles driven.
If all manufactured products were taxed by the amount of CO2 emitted during manufacturing, and fuels were taxed by the CO2 they would emit during use, the base price of gas would probably go up significantly (CO2 emitted during manufacturing, so companies would simply pass this cost along to consumer), and you would probably need a carbon tax of at least $2.00/liter before a Prius would be economically viable.
Meaning I (and MANY others like me) will just keep on driving the same car that I am today, regardless of the carbon tax.
And I think most people would agree, that a $2.00/liter tax on gas would destroy our economy. You don't need a degree in economics to figure that out.
Antonio, You do realize that "corporate responsibility" just gets passed on to us, the consumer? It sounds typically Canadian to say "Canadians are ready for a carbon tax" when the unsaid words are "on the other guy". When asked a direct question on what Canadians are willing to pay the responses have been underwhelming. Airy-fairy questions without details won't cut it, and Suzuki's dreamworld won't, either.
The biggest problem with this" bank " , is the distribution of the ATM cards , China , India , Russia ...... great way for the Libs to fund up-coming elections , tho . Any bureaucratic nightmare that size has to have the , shall we say ,ethically challenged amongst the LPC quivering with anticipation .
BTW , giving powers of taxation to foreign governments , doesn't seem proper n'est pas ?
The Liberal Carbon tax (er ING investment account...SAVE YOUR CREDITS) is meant to tax businesses for not reducing carbon emissions. If businesses reduce emissions, they get their money back...
There is an italian expression for this kind of scheme, but I won't digress.
My point is this is not the joe Clark gas tax...
and until people are clearly told what it is (in normal terms and not tree-house banks) then they wont be able to decide if they want it or not.
Asking people if they wanna pay a tax is like asking kids if they think homework is necessary...
We all know businesses never pass their costs on to consumers . The only thing anyone needs to know about this entire idiotic "scheme " is that the UN ( Mo Strong ) , is involved .
Yea, its crazy that Dion and Jack are just filled to the brim with enthusiam about finding 'new' ways to take money away from working people. Apparantly they haven't the mildest connection to reality to realize that if they put charge on oil company simply charge us more at the pump. I know I'm just dying to pay more than a dollar a liter.
Chris
"Apparantly they haven't the mildest connection to reality to realize that if they put charge on oil company simply charge us more at the pump."
Perhaps we should impose a windfall tax?
Stop complaining. You should spend your time figuring how to cut energy costs. It'll be good for the envirnment and for yourself.
I'd like to hear what Kyoto the dog has to say about all this... given that he is the most enviro-knowledgeable high-ranking Liberal out there.
Are you a member of the Suzuki Nation, Antonio? (ref. Toronto Star)
Post a Comment
<< Home