What happened to our green PM?

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau just made life more expensive for dedicated users of public transit in a move which, according to his own logic, flies in the face of fighting climate change.

That’s because in his mad scramble to raid the public purse for more cash, last week’s federal budget eliminates the 15 per cent, non-refundable public transit tax credit as of July 1.

Depending on an individual’s marginal tax rate, the public transit tax credit that Trudeau is killing is worth up a few hundred dollars to commuters. A TTC commuter who spends $146.25 on a monthly pass, would save $21.94 a month on their taxes. For a 12-month pass of $1,755, they would get $146.25.

The previous Conservative government introduced the tax credit in 2006 as a way to give a financial break to people using public transit and to encourage more people to commute, in order to reduce air pollution and greenhouse gases.

Trudeau and Finance Minister Bill Morneau, in scrapping the tax credit, argued not enough people were using it to make it worthwhile.

That’s absurd, given that 1.3 million Canadians benefit from the tax credit when filing their income taxes.

What it really shows is that when governments want more money from the public, they’ll dream up any excuse to take it, including ignoring their own rhetoric about the importance of encouraging more Canadians to take public transit.

Trudeau and Morneau respond that while they’re eliminating the public transit tax credit, they’re giving cities billions of dollars more to build and maintain public transit infrastructure. But that means nothing in and of itself. In order to reduce greenhouse gases, public transit has to be built in places where riders will actually use it, not influenced by political decisions such as attracting the most votes.

For example, half-empty subway lines to nowhere don’t reduce greenhouse gas emissions because of the huge amount of fossil fuel energy it takes to build them initially, and then to maintain and repair them.

As for Trudeau, apparently his government is so far into the red, that he can’t afford to be green on transit fares. — Postmedia Network