The economics of Trudeau's carbon tax

[Anonymous]

Don't say that you weren't warned: For Justin Trudeau's carbon tax to accomplish its goals, it will have to go up significantly.



The latest warning comes from the non-partisan Parliamentary Budget Office (PBO).



According to the PBO, Canada will need to boost its carbon tax from $50 a tonne in 2022 to between $102 and $138 a tonne by 2030 if Canada is to meet its Paris Agreement targets on greenhouse gas emissions.



The difference between $102 and $138 a tonne is dependent on the state of the economy and the price of oil over the next 11 years.



However, the PBO's main estimate is that the carbon tax will need to rise to $102 a tonne by 2030 to close a gap of 79 Mt of emissions in order to meet Canada's Paris Agreement targets. If the economy grows and oil and gas production increases, emissions could be 55 Mt higher meaning a gap of 134 Mt.



"The additional carbon price needed to achieve the Paris target with a gap of 134 Mt would rise from $10 per tonne in 2023 to $88 per tonne in 2030," the report reads.



Let's be honest, talking in mega tonnes and a carbon price per tonne is gibberish to most of us. What does it mean in real terms?



After speaking with Dan McTeague, former Liberal MP and senior analyst with gasbuddy.com, I find out the numbers are staggering.



The increased carbon tax price would mean as much as an extra 26.3 cents per litre for gasoline, once you add in the HST the change would boost the price per litre by at least 29.7 cents per litre. For diesel, it would be at least 35 cents per litre.



"That's your jet fuel, that's your bus transportation, that's your freight. If you want to cripple the economy, be my guest," McTeague said.



The PBO even suggests that at just $102 a tonne, the carbon tax would shave off 1% of Canada's GDP by 2030. How much worse will it be if the tax goes to $138 a tonne?



Justin Trudeau has been reluctant to say that the carbon tax will need to rise yet every expert analysis says that it must to achieve his stated goal.



A study by the bureaucrats inside Environment Canada in 2015 said that the carbon tax would have to rise to as much as $300 a tonne to meet Canada's objectives.



When pushed on the potential rise of the carbon tax, Trudeau has stayed true to form and attacked those that question him. The Liberals have tried to deflect criticism by pointing out that a Nobel prize winning economist has called for a carbon tax to fight climate change.



William Nordhaus won the Nobel Prize for Economics last fall for his work on carbon pricing. Yet the strange thing is that while Trudeau points to this fact as proof that he is on the right track, his proposal is nothing like that of Nordhaus.



Nordhaus, a Yale professor who has been writing on this issue for decades, calls for a very steep carbon tax to change people's behaviour while lowering other taxes.



Trudeau hasn't reduced other taxes such as income tax; he has simply introduced a carbon tax on top of other taxes — a carbon tax most experts say is too low to have the desired effect.



As we head towards the October vote and Trudeau tries to make the carbon tax and his fight against climate change a central theme, it will be up to individual voters to hold him to account and ask him how high the tax will go.



We've heard from the PBO, now it's time to hear from Trudeau.

https://torontosun.com/opinion/columnists/lilley-independent-report-says-trudeaus-carbon-tax-will-rise-by-a-lot">https://torontosun.com/opinion/columnis ... e-by-a-lot">https://torontosun.com/opinion/columnists/lilley-independent-report-says-trudeaus-carbon-tax-will-rise-by-a-lot



The only people that will be able to afford to heat their homes, take flights, and drive a car will be the Trudeaus if we give JT another term.

Oh my, there's something to look forward to.

 :001_rolleyes:

[Anonymous]

Don't say that you weren't warned: For Justin Trudeau's carbon tax to accomplish its goals, it will have to go up significantly.



The latest warning comes from the non-partisan Parliamentary Budget Office (PBO).



According to the PBO, Canada will need to boost its carbon tax from $50 a tonne in 2022 to between $102 and $138 a tonne by 2030 if Canada is to meet its Paris Agreement targets on greenhouse gas emissions.



The difference between $102 and $138 a tonne is dependent on the state of the economy and the price of oil over the next 11 years.



However, the PBO's main estimate is that the carbon tax will need to rise to $102 a tonne by 2030 to close a gap of 79 Mt of emissions in order to meet Canada's Paris Agreement targets. If the economy grows and oil and gas production increases, emissions could be 55 Mt higher meaning a gap of 134 Mt.



"The additional carbon price needed to achieve the Paris target with a gap of 134 Mt would rise from $10 per tonne in 2023 to $88 per tonne in 2030," the report reads.



Let's be honest, talking in mega tonnes and a carbon price per tonne is gibberish to most of us. What does it mean in real terms?



After speaking with Dan McTeague, former Liberal MP and senior analyst with gasbuddy.com, I find out the numbers are staggering.



The increased carbon tax price would mean as much as an extra 26.3 cents per litre for gasoline, once you add in the HST the change would boost the price per litre by at least 29.7 cents per litre. For diesel, it would be at least 35 cents per litre.



"That's your jet fuel, that's your bus transportation, that's your freight. If you want to cripple the economy, be my guest," McTeague said.



The PBO even suggests that at just $102 a tonne, the carbon tax would shave off 1% of Canada's GDP by 2030. How much worse will it be if the tax goes to $138 a tonne?



Justin Trudeau has been reluctant to say that the carbon tax will need to rise yet every expert analysis says that it must to achieve his stated goal.



A study by the bureaucrats inside Environment Canada in 2015 said that the carbon tax would have to rise to as much as $300 a tonne to meet Canada's objectives.



When pushed on the potential rise of the carbon tax, Trudeau has stayed true to form and attacked those that question him. The Liberals have tried to deflect criticism by pointing out that a Nobel prize winning economist has called for a carbon tax to fight climate change.



William Nordhaus won the Nobel Prize for Economics last fall for his work on carbon pricing. Yet the strange thing is that while Trudeau points to this fact as proof that he is on the right track, his proposal is nothing like that of Nordhaus.



Nordhaus, a Yale professor who has been writing on this issue for decades, calls for a very steep carbon tax to change people's behaviour while lowering other taxes.



Trudeau hasn't reduced other taxes such as income tax; he has simply introduced a carbon tax on top of other taxes — a carbon tax most experts say is too low to have the desired effect.



As we head towards the October vote and Trudeau tries to make the carbon tax and his fight against climate change a central theme, it will be up to individual voters to hold him to account and ask him how high the tax will go.



We've heard from the PBO, now it's time to hear from Trudeau.

https://torontosun.com/opinion/columnists/lilley-independent-report-says-trudeaus-carbon-tax-will-rise-by-a-lot">https://torontosun.com/opinion/columnis ... e-by-a-lot">https://torontosun.com/opinion/columnists/lilley-independent-report-says-trudeaus-carbon-tax-will-rise-by-a-lot



The only people that will be able to afford to heat their homes, take flights, and drive a car will be the Trudeaus if we give JT another term.

Trudeau and the rest of the elitist prog scum's war on working class people. Canada will be a country of rich and poor people only in twenty years thanks to garbage like this.

[Anonymous]

The North knows the carbon tax is a scam



The carbon tax is coming to two out of Canada's three territories just in time to celebrate Canada Day, and as the saying goes, "words matter."



So when northerners hear Liberal politicians talk about climate change using buzz words like "carbon levy" or "putting a price on pollution," our baloney detector starts making noises.



We're told the carbon tax will somehow magically put more money back in our pockets than it originally took out. But money doesn't just magically appear; it has to come from somewhere, and that somewhere is some other taxpayer's pocket.



We have Prime Minister Justin Trudeau taking from one Canadian and giving to another, trying to present himself as some modern-day figurative Robin Hood.



A government that claims to have the ability to give you more back than you put in is not telling the whole story. Sadly, anyone who questions this, or who questions the effectiveness of a Canadian tax having any measurable effect on global temperatures gets quickly labeled by Liberals as a climate change "denier."



Northerners don't need some alarmist, virtue-signaling politician from Ottawa — yet alone Paris — frightening us with the climate change bogeyman, we only need to look out the window, we live it every day in the north.



We all want to "do our part" to leave a better world for our children, and northerners better than most appreciate how urgently modern civilization must adapt its habits to minimize our often wasteful and consumption-based lifestyles.





But citizens of all free countries should be very suspicious of any government who uses fear as a motivator, especially if the solution to the crisis is to hand over more of your hard-earned money.



The Liberals tell us that the "experts agree" a tax is the most effective way to address climate change. Yet ironically the economists who endorse taxation as a means to reduce emissions concur the Liberal approach won't work. It would need to be orders of magnitude greater if ever to be effective.



[size=150]We're told that each and every act of paying the tax at point of purchase "will help us reconsider our choices," but in the next breath we're told "the tax is so low we won't even notice it."

[/size]

It can't work both ways. With regard to the former, we have government's heavy hand in our pockets employing intentionally punitive measures, deliberately limiting taxpayers' ability to make their own purchasing decisions.



And with regards to the latter, anyone who suggests that even the slightest increase in monthly household costs won't be noticed is grossly out of touch with the budgetary reality millions of Canadians face daily.



And the Liberals wonder why they are labelled as the party of the elites?



"[size=150]The price of doing nothing is too high!" our virtuous Liberal overlords cry. But that's assuming the only possible means of "taking action" consists of raising the price of every single essential service or product, which of course it isn't.

[/size]

As the Canadians most affected, northerners are well-positioned to demonstrate leadership in climate change adaptation and implementation of measures that maximize efficiency and minimize consumption. Actions that actually reduce emissions.



Instead of taking money from everybody and deciding who gets it back and who doesn't, why don't the Liberals let northerners decide how to best invest our own money in locally-benefiting, cost-effective solutions that actually help the environment, as opposed to some blatant re-election scam designed to appeal to certain demographics of voters?



Perhaps our government could try using a carrot instead of a stick.



Because while the prime minister likes to talk about "putting a price" on everything, northerners are ready and willing to genuinely reduce our reliance on fossil fuels.



All that is needed is a government who will keep their hands out of our pockets.