Funny how all this works
Canada passed a carbon tax that will give most Canadians more money
Last week, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced that under the Greenhouse Gas Pollution Pricing Act, Canada will implement a revenue-neutral carbon tax starting in 2019, fulfilling a campaign pledge he made in 2015.
The federal carbon pollution price will start low at $20 per ton in 2019, rising at $10 per ton per year until reaching $50 per ton in 2022. The carbon tax will stay at that level unless the legislation is revisited and revised. (snip)
A $20/ton carbon tax translates into a 16.6 cent per gallon surcharge on gasoline. So, in 2022, the $50/ton carbon tax will increase Canadian gasoline prices by about 42 cents per gallon (11 cents per liter). For comparison, the average price of gasoline in Canada is $1.43 per liter, so that would be about an 8% gasoline price increase in 2022.
The price of coal would more than double, with a carbon tax surcharge of about $100 per ton in 2022. Natural gas prices will rise by about 10 cents per cubic meter in 2022 compared to current prices of around 13 cents per cubic meter – about a 75% increase. This will increase demand for cheaper carbon-free electricity. However, Canada already supplies about 60% of its electricity through hydroelectric generation and 16% from nuclear – only about 20–25% comes from fossil fuels. (snip)
One key component of the federal carbon tax is that it’s revenue-neutral, similar to the policy proposal from Citizens’ Climate Lobby. All the taxed money will be distributed back to the provinces from which they were generated. The provinces will in turn rebate about 90% the revenues back to individual taxpayers. The rebates are anticipated to exceed the increased energy costs for about 70% of Canadian households.
For example, a Manitoba family will receive a $336 rebate in 2019 compared to its increased costs of $232. A similar family in Saskatchewan will receive $598 compared to its higher costs of $403. In Ontario, families will receive $300 to offset its $244 in carbon taxes. And in New Brunswick a $248 rebate more than offsets the average household cost of $202. The rebates will more than double by 2022 as the carbon tax rises, and the net financial benefit to households will grow over time.
So, Government taxation from anti-scientific method professional Alarmists will increase the cost of living for Canadians, so government will (supposedly) refund them the extra money that the tax will cost them. Which gives Government more control and influence on citizens. Strange how that works, wouldn’t you say?
Of course, this doesn’t really take into account the true cost of living increase for Canadian citizens. You can bet that family in Manitoba will be spending more than $232 as an increased cost. And certainly more than the $336 rebate.
(National Post) In a Financial Post editorial earlier this month, Mintz estimated that even when the rebates are tallied, the carbon tax will cost the average Ontario family about $124 a year.
And this
Yes, it won’t meet the Paris targets
If a carbon tax was the only climate change policy Canada ever implemented (and it’s not), $20 a tonne wouldn’t come close to meeting its Paris agreement target of reducing emissions by 30 per cent below 2005 levels by 2030. In fact, it’s pretty reasonable to assume that Canada and the rest of the world is not going to meet the IPCC’s most optimistic target of limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius (although two degrees is still in the cards). But carbon emissions are still bad, and it prevents environmental damage whenever there’s less of them. In a 2013 estimate the U.S. White House was estimating that every extra tonne of carbon was causing US$37 of damage around the world. In fact, many economists aren’t tremendously enthused by the Paris targets, arguing that the better strategy is to simply make carbon emissions about as expensive as the damage they cause. “We should … focus on what the environmental damage is from emitting one tonne. Then, price that,†the University of Calgary’s Trevor Tombe told the National Post. Meanwhile, it’s not like the carbon tax is the first government program that isn’t a be-all end-all solution to to a policy problem. We put soldiers in body armour even though it won’t make battlefield deaths obsolete and we require airbags in cars even though they won’t completely prevent road fatalities.
They just want to tax the ever loving hell out of citizens, not realizing the damage it will do. Because most who push this are very rich, and it won’t harm their own lifestyles.
“not realizing the damage” should be “not caring about the damage”
And the Guardian article subhead: “By rebating the revenue to households, disposable income rises, which can be a boon for the Canadian economy”
Only in progressive la-la land does taking money from individuals through taxes and then giving them a fraction of it back constitute a “boon to the economy”.
It also doesn’t tally the increased cost of manufacturing, which will add to the cost to the taxpayers.
what’s the point of it if “supposedly” the citizen doesn’t see a change? If this is supposed to change the citizen’s fuel usage through a tax hike, how does it do that if the citizen sees their money back?
Granted, it might not ever get to that point or be reduced to bare minimal returns. But, that’s liberal idiotic thinking for ya.