CHARBONNEAU – If Rustad cuts B.C.’s carbon tax, we will still have one

JOHN RUSTAD, the leader of the British Columbia Conservative Party, will scrap B.C.’s carbon tax if he becomes premier.

Good luck with that.

Saskatchewan, Ontario, and Alberta tried to do it only to have the feds impose one. The provinces took the issue to court but lost. The Supreme Court of Canada upheld the constitutionality of the federal government’s carbon pricing system, ruling that climate change is a matter of national concern.

B.C. Premier Eby mentioned the federal carbon pricing system, in the televised leaders debate on Oct. 8, when he referred to the “federal backstop.” Why he didn’t elaborate and dismiss Rustad’s plan to cut the carbon tax, I’m not sure.

Probably it was because Eby himself has said he would cut the carbon tax as well if the feds do.

That’s a big “if.” If the federal Conservatives win the next election, and if they (heaven forbid) cut the carbon tax, then provinces will no longer have to do anything about the climate emergency.

For now, this federal government has the authority to impose a federal carbon tax under the Greenhouse Gas Pollution Pricing Act in cases where provinces don’t.

Too bad Eby didn’t elaborate. The “federal backstop” ensures that every province and territory has a carbon pricing mechanism in place to meet national emissions reduction goals.

After Saskatchewan, Ontario, and Alberta politicized climate change, Rustad hopes to join the deniers club. B.C. could be the next province to be seen as a laggard in fighting climate change.

The BC Liberals implemented the first carbon tax in North America in 2008, a move lauded internationally as an effective method of fighting climate change.

It’s sad to see former BC Liberal MLAs abandon their principles – MLAs like former BC Liberal MLA Peter Milobar — now Conservative candidate for Kamloops Centre.

Unfortunately, confusion abounds in the minds of many B.C. voters.

Popularity of the Conservative Party B.C. is a consequence of branding. Voters confuse them with the federal Conservative Party which is riding high in the polls nationally.

Then, some British Columbians still think that the carbon levy is a “carbon tax” even though taxes are monies collected to finance public works and services, such as roads and schools and programs such as Old Age Security and Health Care.

The carbon levy is returned to consumers. Most Canadians receive a rebate greater than what they pay in added costs of fossil fuels.

Worse, in a recent poll conducted by Research Co., one in four British Columbians think that global warming is mostly caused by natural changes.

Another 13 per cent of British Columbians think global warming has not been proven. That’s an astonishing total of over one third of British Columbians who are in denial of the human caused climate emergency.

In fact, without human influence we would currently be in a very slow cooling trend that began around 6,000 years ago, moving towards another glacial period according to a study published in the prestigious magazine Nature.

Yet, in a fit of common sense, 75 per cent of British Columbians agree that we need to do much more, or a bit more, to deal with climate change according to the survey.

David Charbonneau is a retired TRU electronics instructor who hosts a blog at http://www.eyeviewkamloops.wordpress.com.