Taxes don’t clean up emissions

On Oct. 23, Jennifer Winter, a professor at U of C, was on TV talking about taxing household carbon emissions. She said “we’re pricing (a.k.a. taxing) the emissions of households and that creates incentive to change behaviour to reduce emissions.”

Categorically, that is not true.

We have lived in our house for more than 35 years. We have our thermostat set at 22 in the day and 18 at night. The government can tax me all they want but I will still want to keep my house warm in winter.

We have had two vehicles for almost our entire marriage of 43 years. Right now, one is a 4-cyl. car and the other a 6-cyl. truck. We use the car for light duty and the truck for taking our trailer camping. Again, tax me all you want but we will still need our vehicles for daily use.

I am absolutely in favour of reducing emissions in our household if possible, but do not tax me for staying warm and getting groceries and say that by taking my money I will magically be reducing emissions. It simply isn’t true. It is nothing more than a cash grab.

Sorry Jennifer, but just because you say something on national television that isn’t true does nothing to save the environment.

Dale Harbidge, Calgary