Axe the Tax & Kill the Kids?

On Monday the The federal government's increase of $15 per tonne of carbon went into effect Monday. The carbon levy increase will cost drivers an extra 3.3 cents per litre at the pump. Since the Canadian government's fuel levy was introduced in 2019 it has added about 18 cents to the cost of a litre of gasoline. 

The premise is that this levy will cause big polluters to find efficiencies to lower greenhouse gas emissions and the revenue gathered from those who don't goes to the government to be returned to taxpayers in the form of quarterly rebates. For 80% of Canadians the rebates will equal or exceed the initial cost.  There are jurisdictions around the world using some form of this levy including California, a US state with a population roughly the same as all of Canada. Provinces such as BC and Quebec have been in on this for a while.

Other provinces have pushed back and Ontario, with the largest population, is chief among them. It's easy to misrepresent how the levy actually works and frankly the feds have done a lousy job of explaining it. The federal opposition party has jumped on the discontent of many Canadians about the rising cost of living and deliberately misrepresented what the carbon levy is costing the average taxpayer. Leader Pierre Poilievre, "rage farmer" extraordinaire, has hounded away with his "axe the tax" and "spike the hike" slogan at every rally and, sadly, people are buying in.

You may have seen that more than four hundred Canadian economists have issued an open letter stating that the carbon levy is actually a good, if imperfect approach to reducing carbon emissions. 

Economists are a "herd of cats" so they have a variety of perspectives about how well it's working -- anywhere from 1% to 8% reduction in emissions so far -- but they are not going up. One pointed out that even 1-2% annually will be a significant gain over a decade. They also point out that raising the carbon levy has a negligible net effect on inflation, a concern many of us have. I do appreciate that farmers and fishers feel the effects of the levy much more than others. 

Some of these economists are asking what alternatives other political leaders are proposing. The short answer is zilch. The Ontario government has no real climate plan and neither do the federal Conservatives. While Poilievre's predecessor Erin O'Toole had something of a climate plan, PP has given us nothing.

To "axe the tax" Pierre might add "kill the kids", because our children and grandchildren will bear the brunt of the crisis calamity that is unfolding around us. It's not a future possibility, it's a current reality. 

As a Christian who is convinced that it is my biblical obligation to be a steward of Creation I am appalled that these shallow, selfish, misleading slogans are resonating with lots of Canadians. For me, ignoring the climate crisis is literally a sin.