EDITORIAL – Carbon tax needs more understanding and less grandstanding

An editorial by Mel Rothenburger.

A CARBON TAX STORY by the Canadian Press yesterday provided an excellent analysis of the issue. The thrust of the story was that it will remain a political hot potato in the new year.

It didn’t mention, though, the silly grandstanding by the Conservatives in early December that forced Parliament to sit for 24 hours straight.

It was all about the Tories forcing 135 votes on budgetary estimates to protest the tax.

The ‘Axe the Tax’ slogan resonates with many because it sounds as though we’d all save a lot of money if we didn’t have to pay it. Missing from the claims of those who want to Axe the Tax, however, is the existence of off-setting rebates.

News coverage of the federal carbon tax issue seldom makes note of the rebates. Various analyses, though, have shown most households get more back in rebates than they pay for carbon tax.

They also show that the wealthy pay more in carbon tax than the rest of us without getting corresponding increases in rebates.

Unfortunately, people don’t notice these rebates because they aren’t clearly defined. What they notice is inflation.

Keep in mind that B.C. has its own carbon tax that was designed to be revenue neutral but the NDP quickly stepped back from true neutrality, so the B.C. and federal taxes aren’t the same.

If the federal tax should be abolished, and B.C. follows suit, would it matter to the environment? Economists say there’s plenty of evidence that carbon taxes are an efficient way to reduce greenhouse gases and slow climate change.

But what’s the math? The mysteries of revenue neutrality need to be explained. In what ways do people get it back? How much actually goes towards fighting pollution? How do cap-and-trade and command-and-control play into it?

Justin Trudeau has done a terrible job of explaining it. If he has any hope of winning back support for the tax, he’d better start talking.

I’m Mel Rothenburger, the Armchair Mayor.

Mel Rothenburger is a regular contributor to CFJC Today, publishes the ArmchairMayor.ca opinion website, and is a recipient of the Jack Webster Foundation Lifetime Achievement Award. He has served as mayor of Kamloops, school board chair and TNRD director, and is a retired daily newspaper editor. He can be reached at mrothenburger@armchairmayor.ca.