Trudeau's carbon scheme costly and ineffective

[Anonymous]

The two key things to understand about Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's national carbon pricing scheme are that it will increase the prices of and/or taxes on almost all goods and services and that it will keep going up for decades to come.



It's not going to end with the $10 charge per tonne of industrial carbon dioxide emissions Trudeau announced for 2018, rising by $10 annually to $50 in 2022.



As a Feb. 21, 2017, internal federal finance department document entitled "Key Design Features of the Federal Carbon Pricing Backstop" explains:



"The overall approach is to be reviewed by 2022...to confirm the path forward, including continued increases in stringency in future years and expert assessment of stringency and effectiveness of the various carbon pricing systems across Canada..."



What that means is Trudeau's $50 per tonne carbon price for 2022 isn't a ceiling, but a floor that all provinces and territories have to meet, one that will continue to rise post-2022, costing Canadians billions of additional dollars annually.





Further, Trudeau's national carbon price, as expensive as it will be for Canadians, is nowhere near high enough to reduce Canada's emissions to Trudeau's pledged targets to the United Nations of 17% below 2005 levels by 2020 and 30% by 2030.



As the National Post reported in March, 2017, based on an Environment Canada document, Environment and Climate Change Minister Catherine McKenna was advised shortly after taking office that Canada's carbon price would have to be $100 per tonne by 2020 (not $50 in 2022), to achieve Trudeau's 2030 target.



And that was assuming a national carbon price starting in 2015, not 2018, or for that matter 2019, when Trudeau's plan will come fully into effect.



The document also said Canada would need a carbon price of $200 to $300 per tonne by 2050 to meet future emission reduction targets, again assuming a 2015 start date.



Canada will only be able to achieve Trudeau's targets, as the UN has noted, if it purchases billions of dollars of carbon allowances on international carbon markets.



Unfortunately, these markets are riddled by fraud.



Finally, let's clear up a report last week by The Canadian Press which argued a recent Conservative fundraising email claiming Trudeau's national carbon price will increase the price of "everything'' contained "a lot of baloney."



While the Conservatives should have said "almost everything", in calling the claim "a lot of baloney" CP downplayed the comments of the main expert it consulted.



That was Chris Ragan, an economics professor at McGill University and chair of Canada's Ecofiscal Commission, who actually said, as CP reported: "I guess in principle I would probably say there is nothing where the price won't go up, but in practice there will be a whole range of things where you won't even notice a price increase."



Perhaps not initially, but that's only because Trudeau's carbon price is $10 per tonne to start (with some provinces giving rebates) and will rapidly rise in future.



Plus, the added costs will be hidden in the retail price of most goods and services, or the provincial and federal taxes applied to them.



Meaning Canadians will be hit for billions of dollars to pay for Trudeau's national carbon pricing scheme, which will not achieve its goals.

http://torontosun.com/opinion/columnists/goldstein-trudeaus-carbon-scheme-costly-and-ineffective">http://torontosun.com/opinion/columnist ... neffective">http://torontosun.com/opinion/columnists/goldstein-trudeaus-carbon-scheme-costly-and-ineffective



A middle class destroying hyper tax with no end in increases. At the same time Americans are lowering costs for  their businesses and consumers.

[Anonymous]

The more real-world experience Canadians have with government-imposed carbon pricing schemes, the more evidence mounts they are money-grabbing scams.



Praised as one of the world's best carbon taxes when it was introduced by the then-Liberal government of British Columbia on July 1, 2008, B.C.'s revenue neutral carbon tax, the first of its kind in Canada, has had an insignificant impact on industrial greenhouse gas emissions linked to climate change.



Today, B.C.'s carbon tax is no longer revenue neutral.



The Liberals, prior to their defeat in last year's provincial election, admitted in 2015 their carbon tax would fail to meet the target they set when they introduced it in 2008 of cutting B.C.'s emissions by at least 33% below 2007 levels by 2020.



This despite billions of taxpayer dollars going into the effort.



As of 2015, the latest year for which figures are available, B.C.'s total emissions were 63.325 megatonnes (a megatonne or Mt represents one million tonnes) compared to 64.660 Mt in 2007.



That's a drop of just 1.335 Mt between 2007 and 2015,  or 2.1%, nowhere near "at least 33%" by 2020.



In fact, B.C.'s emissions are going up, rising by 1.6% in 2015 and 2.3% over the last three years.



While the government says emissions are down 4.9% over 10 years, the major reason for that was the 2009 global recession.



B.C.'s carbon tax started at $10 per tonne in 2008,  rising by $5 annually until 2012, when the Liberals froze it at $30 per tonne.  



The province's new NDP government will raise the carbon price to $35 per tonne on April 1, 2018, followed by annual increments of $5 until it hits $50 per tonne on April 1, 2021.



That's one year ahead of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's requirement all provinces and territories have a minimum carbon price of $50 per tonne by 2022.



When it was introduced, B.C.'s carbon tax was, unlike other carbon pricing schemes in Canada, revenue neutral, returning all the money it raised to taxpayers through broad-based personal income and corporate tax cuts.



But B.C.'s new NDP government officially abandoned revenue neutrality in its 2017 budget, saying it will spend the money on projects to reduce emissions.



Given B.C.'s experience, the idea Trudeau's national carbon price — starting at $10 per tonne this year and rising to $50 in 2022 — will meet his promised United Nations' targets of reducing Canada's emissions to 17% below 2005 levels by 2020, and 30% below by 2030, is absurd.



As of 2015, the latest year for which figures are available, Canada's annual emissions were 722 Mt.



To meet Trudeau's 2020 and 2030 targets, Canada's emissions would have to be 613 Mt in 2020 and 517 Mt in 2030.



That means Canada is currently 109 Mt, or 18%, above Trudeau's 2020 target and 205 Mt, or 40%, above his 2030 target.



Now compare that to B.C., where a $10 per tonne carbon price imposed in 2008, rising to $30 in 2012, reduced emissions by only 1.335 Mt, or 2.1% compared to 2007, between 2008 and 2015.



All Trudeau's carbon price, along with the  provincial carbon schemes resulting from it will do, is hit Canadians with billions of dollars in new costs for most goods and services, while failing to deliver the promised emission cuts.



B.C.'s carbon tax proves it.

http://torontosun.com/opinion/columnists/goldstein-b-c-carbon-tax-claims-mostly-hot-air">http://torontosun.com/opinion/columnist ... ly-hot-air">http://torontosun.com/opinion/columnists/goldstein-b-c-carbon-tax-claims-mostly-hot-air



So much for revenue neutrality and reducing emissions. We see with BC,  Alberta and now Ottawa, carbon pricing is confiscation.

[Anonymous]

Will there be a middle class in Canada when my children are my age......I have doubts.

[mugwump]

Will there be a middle class in Canada when my children are my age......I have doubts.

I have no doubt there won't be a middle class, free speech, or political choice.

[Anonymous]

Will there be a middle class in Canada when my children are my age......I have doubts.

I have no doubt there won't be a middle class, free speech, or political choice.

 

[Anonymous]

Will there be a middle class in Canada when my children are my age......I have doubts.

Excessive regulation and taxation are economic cyanide.

[Anonymous]

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[Anonymous]

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Oh my gosh IHJ....and yet we pay carbon taxes....why?

[Anonymous]

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This is the REAL science of climate change. It's also what the alarmists deny. You will never hear a federal politician in Canada acknowledge this. Even if you believe climate change is an existential threat, C02 is plant food. Canadians should be getting a tax cut for scrubbing so much C02 from the atmosphere, not a rising carbon tax.

[Anonymous]

https://scontent.fyxd1-1.fna.fbcdn.net/v/t1.0-9/16105974_1517854098243161_4966318741619522088_n.jpg?oh=03f0631fbb58cf88eea9432f84227246&oe=5AD7E3CE">

This is the REAL science of climate change. It's also what the alarmists deny. You will never hear a federal politician in Canada acknowledge this. Even if you believe climate change is an existential threat, C02 is plant food. Canadians should be getting a tax cut for scrubbing so much C02 from the atmosphere, not a rising carbon tax.

I wonder if our politicians are unaware of this or trying to hide it.

 ac_umm

[cc]

They ignore everything that does not suit their warped agendas

[Wazzzup]

How is the tax levied?  Is it through gas taxes or through income taxes or some pther way?



How much more does a family of four pay in taxes with carbon taxes added on?

[Anonymous]

How is the tax levied?  Is it through gas taxes or through income taxes or some pther way?



How much more does a family of four pay in taxes with carbon taxes added on?

It's a steadily rising tax per tonne of  carbon. It has to be fifty bucks per tonne minimum by 2022. Provinces can make it higher if they wish. Every climate scientist, both alarmist and not have said that it is impossible for Canada to reach the targets we've set for carbon reductions with a carbon tax. It will raise over fifteen billion per year for the feds alone through the GST on the tax(I know, even our taxes are taxed). It will also kneecap Canada's competitiveness, especially with our biggest trading partner.



I support the science behind anthropogenic climate change, but a carbon tax is anti science. It also shows provincial governments and Trudeau do not support science. They do care about additional revenue.

[Anonymous]

How is the tax levied?  Is it through gas taxes or through income taxes or some pther way?



How much more does a family of four pay in taxes with carbon taxes added on?

It's a steadily rising tax per tonne of  carbon. It has to be fifty bucks per tonne minimum by 2022. Provinces can make it higher if they wish. Every climate scientist, both alarmist and not have said that it is impossible for Canada to reach the targets we've set for carbon reductions with a carbon tax. It will raise over fifteen billion per year for the feds alone through the GST on the tax(I know, even our taxes are taxed). It will also kneecap Canada's competitiveness, especially with our biggest trading partner.



I support the science behind anthropogenic climate change, but a carbon tax is anti science. It also shows provincial governments and Trudeau do not support science. They do care about additional revenue.

No, party would ever repeal this either. That would not be 'leadership'.

[Wazzzup]

Ive seen stuff here like that--



Red light cameras, everybody loves safety how can anybody be against that?  then the cities shorten the yellow light and there are more accidents.  truth is they don't care, they just want the money



Soda pop tax, everybody's against obesity right? then they start taxing diet drinks too.  



Just like the carbon tax sceheme, these are all just ways to raise taxes without going out and saying they want to raise taxes.  that would be unpopular, so they use a gimmick to get it done.



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