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Time to scrap the carbon tax

Sentiment to scrap B.C.’s carbon tax program was expressed in the provincial legislature earlier this week

Sentiment to scrap B.C.’s carbon tax program was expressed in the provincial legislature earlier this week, adding to a slowly growing sentiment that views the carbon tax as a costly mistake.

Kootenay East MLA Bill Bennett  joined Caribou North Independent MLA Bob Simpson  Monday when he opined that the government should “quit pretending it can influence global climate and scrap the carbon tax.”

Public institutions like schools and hospitals will pay 25 million dollars in carbon offsets to the Pacific Carbon Trust this year - money lost to them to a trust that they cannot access. The money ends up in the hands of big business, and our local public institutions end up being deprived of money they could have used on their own to clean up their emissions. (The  B.C.government  is offering rebates to public institutions for the first time this year, most likely due to public outrage over the way the program presently works.)

The Regional District  Okanagan Similkameen has set aside $25,000 in the 2012 budget for carbon offsets. The Village of Keremeos is estimating their carbon charges to be  $1,600 this year, but like the RDOS, won’t know until the end of the year what the final bill will be. There will also be an additional cent per litre added to the price of gasoline coming on July 1 that will apply province wide.

It’s high time to scrap this nonsense. When one considers that B.C. emits one tenth of Canada’s carbon emissions, which represent only two per cent of human caused carbon emissions in the world - and the public sector in B.C. is only responsible for one per cent of the province’s total emissions, the program would never have a significant impact curtailing carbon emissions on a global scale.

The carbon tax is a failure on all fronts - and it’s an insult to, and an unnecessary expenditure for, the B.C. taxpayer.