B. C.’ s carbon tax seen as model for rest of country
When it comes to being green, B. C. stands apart in a country with a population of carbon gluttons. That was a view promoted Wednesday at an Ottawa conference that explored ways to publicly “talk about a carbon price — without panicking.”
Diana Carney, vice- president of research for the nonpartisan think- tank Canada 2020, says Canada should take a lesson from the West Coast province when it comes to “decarbonizing.”
In a background paper prepared for the gathering, Carney — wife of Bank of Canada governor Mark Carney — included Statistics Canada data showing B. C.’ s carbon tax is having a positive effect.
B. C.’ s per capita consumption of refined petroleum products dropped 15.1 per cent between 2008, when the carbon tax was introduced, and 2011. By contrast, over the same period, consumption rose 1.3 per cent in the rest of the country.
Canada’s carbon emissions are equivalent to double the European per capita average, reports Carney. And, at this point, there’s “no basis for a serious claim that Canada will meet its Copenhagen commitment” — a 17- per- cent reduction in emissions by 2020 from 2005 levels.
Canada is more likely to achieve a three- per- cent reduction from 2005 levels.
The think tank’s position is that, given Canada’s stated aim of becoming a large- scale energy exporter and with melting ice in the Arctic and droughts in the Prairie, it’s essential that federal politicians start promoting some sort of carbon pricing.
At the moment, conference organizers say, carbon pricing is being portrayed as “scorched earth .... Blame for inaction lies at the feet of all federal parties.”
While the Harper Conservatives included a cap and trade pledge in their early election campaigns, they’ve since characterized any form of carbon pricing as “a tax on everything.”
Just last September, Stephen Harper told the Commons: “Canadians and people across the globe know we have a government smart enough to reject dumb ideas like a $ 20- billion carbon tax.”
Conservatives watched in 2008 as Stephane Dion peddled a Green Shift carbon pricing program that helped Liberals lose an election that year.
The party has not revisited the idea while New Democrats are supporting some sort of cap and trade system.
The government knows it would have a tough time selling carbon pricing to its political base, especially in Alberta.
Moreover, it believes Canadians, post- 2008, are more concerned with economic survival than environmental matters.
And so Harper prefers to let the provinces respond to the emissions challenge and take any political heat for it.
To date, several provinces have joined B. C. in acting, with Alberta focusing on reducing emissions in various industries, and Quebec introducing a cap and trade system. Ontario is phasing out its coal- fired electricity generation.
Carney’s paper insists, “pricing carbon can be feasible, politically.”
She notes that it was sold to British Columbians by being clear, predictable and, most importantly, revenue neutral.
Polling has demonstrated, says Carney, that voters are more prepared to accept carbon pricing if monies collected are directed to tax reductions, public transit or other public benefits.
One idea floated at the conference as a way of marketing carbon pricing to voters was for politicians to point out such an initiative would benefit people’s own children and grandchildren.
Among those attending Wednesday’s conference were former Quebec Liberal premier Jean Charest and Green party Leader Elizabeth May, politicians familiar with the challenges inherent in trying to sell any public program that seeks to extract cash from consumers and companies.