Taxing out of existence

Re: Tories Must Get Real On Carbon Pricing, Andrew Coyne, Sept. 24.

A carbon tax is a tax on consumers and on many of the essentials of life. Little happens and nothing is produced or transported in Canada without energy. And, just like a sales tax, once imposed on production and goods and services, a carbon tax just provides more revenue for increasingly bloated government bureaucracies. Nothing changes for the environment. All necessary life-supporting activities and consumption continue as before, only now with more taxes and costs for consumers and business.

Moreover, the obvious fact that Canada produces only 1.5 per cent of worldwide carbon output, makes any small change in our carbon production infinitesimal in the grand scheme of climate change. Besides, with the fashionable need for “social licence,” the heavy hand of foreign environmental activists and the blockades by aboriginals, Canada will see no expansion of our energy sector for generations to come. Carbon production will not need to be taxed. It may not even exist. Edward Mazer, Onanole, Man.