The Liberals believe renaming their 'Climate Action Incentive Payments' as 'Canada Carbon Rebates' will satisfy the national disgust about what carbon taxes have done to daily life. The carbon tax is, after all, nothing more than a disincentive penalty fine for choosing the wrong behaviour — as decided by the NDP-Liberals. That is, one is supposed to be recoiled by the fine and choose what they consider a more socially accepted environmental lifestyle. We buy alternatives, and don’t use the products we need because they are now too expensive. Thus are we fined and penalized into environmental virtue.The problem is there are few alternatives. Since petroleum is the reason we have an advanced civilization, the virtue-signalling about living green without oil is disingenuous. Perhaps as technology develops, our society might move away from burning oil or natural gas. However, not in this century.And so it is that the government's distortion of the marketplace for the green agenda has indeed distorted the marketplace, but it’s not doing the intended job. Instead, Canadians are just getting poorer, with less health-care, education and public safety and worst of all, skyrocketing food prices.Some background. Water vapour, CO2, and methane are the most significant greenhouse gases. The theory is that those gases trap heat and aggravate global warming, leading to hotter days, rising seas and more intense storms. Since global warming is happening — on that at least we agree — man-made CO2 is to blame: The logic is that if humans didn't exist, the climate would stabilize. (It is faulty logic, of course. Geologists know that long before humanity inhabited the planet, there were wild planetary temperature fluctuations and erratic changes in sea level. But, I digress.)The thing is that as yet, there is no agreed predictive link between CO2 and temperature rise. We actually don’t even know whether the measured rise in CO2 is the cause of warming — or a consequence. We do know (contra the prime minister) that it’s not a pollutant. Without CO2, all life on earth would soon die. It’s plant food. Thus, Mr. Trudeau is far from honest when he says in the House of Commons that the government has 'put a price on pollution.' Likewise without water, the planet is dead, yet water vapor is by far the most significant greenhouse gas; methane is just the by-product of animals and the decay of vegetable matter.Thus this penalty tax is neither good climate policy nor good fiscal policy. Even strong proponents of taxing carbon don’t try to assert that it will do much about climate change. We can’t manage what we don’t measure. But, the government doesn't measure the effects of CO2 reduction because they know the public won’t like the answer: The latest federal government data indicate that Canada’s CO2 emissions in 2021 went up by 1.8% to 670 million tonnes, compared to 2020. Questions about estimated benefits are avoided with scoldings about leadership, spurring innovation, and the social conscience of Canadians.Fiscally meanwhile, the present government is stuck on the Carbon Tax Treadmill as it needs the revenue. But if a carbon tax were ever successful in forcing people to move to mostly renewable energy, then it would erode its revenue source. The government is thus relying on an unstable tax base that is planned to go away. Then what?If the Liberals were honest, they would admit their carbon tax was not a 'price on pollution', but a price added to almost all goods and services Canadians pay for. Parliamentary Budget Officer Yves Giroux reports that when the negative impact of the carbon tax on the economy is factored in, 60% of households currently now pay more in carbon taxes than they receive in rebates; this will rise to 80% in Nova Scotia in 2025, 80% in Ontario in 2026, 80% in Manitoba in 2029 and 80% in Alberta and P.E.I. in 2030. (And then they say that if Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre axes the carbon tax, people will lose the rebates. What twisted fearmongering is that? If there was no carbon tax, there would be no need for rebates.) It’s absurd that Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and the NDP-Liberals believe renaming the “climate action incentive payments” as “Canada Carbon Rebates” will fix the reputation of their carbon tax.No. This is a problem of bad policy, not bad communication.Just get rid of the whole scam and top trying to bribe us with our own money, the rebate.
The Liberals believe renaming their 'Climate Action Incentive Payments' as 'Canada Carbon Rebates' will satisfy the national disgust about what carbon taxes have done to daily life. The carbon tax is, after all, nothing more than a disincentive penalty fine for choosing the wrong behaviour — as decided by the NDP-Liberals. That is, one is supposed to be recoiled by the fine and choose what they consider a more socially accepted environmental lifestyle. We buy alternatives, and don’t use the products we need because they are now too expensive. Thus are we fined and penalized into environmental virtue.The problem is there are few alternatives. Since petroleum is the reason we have an advanced civilization, the virtue-signalling about living green without oil is disingenuous. Perhaps as technology develops, our society might move away from burning oil or natural gas. However, not in this century.And so it is that the government's distortion of the marketplace for the green agenda has indeed distorted the marketplace, but it’s not doing the intended job. Instead, Canadians are just getting poorer, with less health-care, education and public safety and worst of all, skyrocketing food prices.Some background. Water vapour, CO2, and methane are the most significant greenhouse gases. The theory is that those gases trap heat and aggravate global warming, leading to hotter days, rising seas and more intense storms. Since global warming is happening — on that at least we agree — man-made CO2 is to blame: The logic is that if humans didn't exist, the climate would stabilize. (It is faulty logic, of course. Geologists know that long before humanity inhabited the planet, there were wild planetary temperature fluctuations and erratic changes in sea level. But, I digress.)The thing is that as yet, there is no agreed predictive link between CO2 and temperature rise. We actually don’t even know whether the measured rise in CO2 is the cause of warming — or a consequence. We do know (contra the prime minister) that it’s not a pollutant. Without CO2, all life on earth would soon die. It’s plant food. Thus, Mr. Trudeau is far from honest when he says in the House of Commons that the government has 'put a price on pollution.' Likewise without water, the planet is dead, yet water vapor is by far the most significant greenhouse gas; methane is just the by-product of animals and the decay of vegetable matter.Thus this penalty tax is neither good climate policy nor good fiscal policy. Even strong proponents of taxing carbon don’t try to assert that it will do much about climate change. We can’t manage what we don’t measure. But, the government doesn't measure the effects of CO2 reduction because they know the public won’t like the answer: The latest federal government data indicate that Canada’s CO2 emissions in 2021 went up by 1.8% to 670 million tonnes, compared to 2020. Questions about estimated benefits are avoided with scoldings about leadership, spurring innovation, and the social conscience of Canadians.Fiscally meanwhile, the present government is stuck on the Carbon Tax Treadmill as it needs the revenue. But if a carbon tax were ever successful in forcing people to move to mostly renewable energy, then it would erode its revenue source. The government is thus relying on an unstable tax base that is planned to go away. Then what?If the Liberals were honest, they would admit their carbon tax was not a 'price on pollution', but a price added to almost all goods and services Canadians pay for. Parliamentary Budget Officer Yves Giroux reports that when the negative impact of the carbon tax on the economy is factored in, 60% of households currently now pay more in carbon taxes than they receive in rebates; this will rise to 80% in Nova Scotia in 2025, 80% in Ontario in 2026, 80% in Manitoba in 2029 and 80% in Alberta and P.E.I. in 2030. (And then they say that if Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre axes the carbon tax, people will lose the rebates. What twisted fearmongering is that? If there was no carbon tax, there would be no need for rebates.) It’s absurd that Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and the NDP-Liberals believe renaming the “climate action incentive payments” as “Canada Carbon Rebates” will fix the reputation of their carbon tax.No. This is a problem of bad policy, not bad communication.Just get rid of the whole scam and top trying to bribe us with our own money, the rebate.
