Today marks the day that they burden us with even more outrageously expensive energy prices… as a Canada Day gift to BC residents.
The beloved Carbon Tax goes from the original 2.4 cents/litre of gas to 5.56 cents. It will rise to 7.24 cents per litre next July, as another Canada Day present for us.
The BC government budget forecasts $740 million in carbon tax revenues this year and $950 million next year.
Now they are saying that B.C.’s carbon tax must increase substantially if the province is going to achieve its greenhouse gas reduction targets. A January 2010 report by the Pembina Institute and others suggested a carbon tax rate of $200 per tonne by 2020, about 44.5 cents per litre of gasoline.
“There’s some evidence that it’s starting to work at a relatively low price, but the idea behind a carbon tax is you start at a slow rate and you send a clear signal it’s going to consistently and predictably rise over time,” said Horne.
We are paying around $1.35/litre right now.. which is about $5.15 a US gallon. You’d think that Washington residents spew more carbon than us… but in fact they are benefiting by the high prices in BC. As I drive 15 miles across the border every other week and buy gas for well under $4 a gallon – and fill the car with groceries – the border crossing is 1 hour+ going there and empty coming back into Canada. Taxes and high prices are keeping tourists away. Tourism is/was one of our largest industries.
If you look at Vancouver, with it’s environmentally minded leaders (or enviro-nazis) , they are winning the fight against global warming. June has been more like February and July doesn’t look to get any warmer. We are freezing here.
Great to know that Canada Day starts with what we love best.. more taxes. And, we can celebrate by enjoying the benefits of our global warming efforts.
photo credit: ankakay
