The math on carbon

Re: Saskatchewan crunches the carbon math, Todd MacKay (Canadian Taxpayers Federation), July 9

Thanks go out to Todd MacKay for letting Joe Taxpayer in on what these carbon taxes might actually mean to Canadians and on some of what federal politicians are trying their damnedest to conceal.

Please let me add a few thoughts. First, if a carbon tax of $50 a tonne is really equivalent to 11 cents per litre on the cost of petrol, then consumers and the economy have already experienced the equivalent of the full carbon tax during the most recent surge in prices at the pump.

Second, without Saskatchewan’s lawsuit, the federal government would never have explained how little this tax is going to reduce global warming.

Third, the success of Saskatchewan’s court challenge will not rest on whether the federal law is incoherent and foolish. It will depend on whether the federal government has the right to order provinces to impose carbon taxes and whether it has the right to impose them itself.

Is the environment a natural resource over which provinces enjoy exclusive jurisdiction? Do federal promises about the environment made to the world in foreign cities like Paris and Kyoto have any force if they have not been approved by the provinces? And, finally, when our courts decide these issues, will their answers be grounded in our constitution or will they hang like tinsel from the furthest stems of a Christmas tree that the courts will claim is still alive? Patrick Cowan, North York, Ont.