No more cruising the strip in British Columbia! It has recently become North America’s first jurisdiction to introduce a consumer based carbon tax! B.C Minister of Finance, Carole Taylor, also vowed that every cent will be returned through tax cuts and credits.
It’s a good way to keep people aware and more accountable for their environmental degradation, while keeping the economy strong. The new tax will be implemented on July 1st. The tax will initially appear at the gas pumps where consumers will be paying approximately 2.4 cents per liter.
For Prius and Smart Car drivers you’re looking at only about $20 per yer - if that. But a Chevy Avalanche? Dodge Ram? An additional $70. The tax won’t only be appearing on gas, but on all fossil fuels.
Gas, natural gas, coal, propane and even home heating. You won’t be able to BBQ or keep warm in the winter in BC without seeing these taxes come up. The tax will steadily increase over the next 4 years capping out at about 7.2 cents per liter.
At the 4 year mark the tax will be up for review to see if anything good is coming out of it. The good parts about this are that the tax is low, so that people will be able to adjust and not having something swamping them, but it will be enough (especially after 4 years) for them to think twice about just driving to the grocery store instead of walking. (You live in BC! Bike!) It has the possibility of giving people a new mindset that generating greenhouse gases actually DOES cost money! However, the problem I see in this is that there are a lot of people out there that won’t be fazed by this new tax. People are already willing to pay more and more at the pumps simply because the price is rising.
The only green they’ll be thinking about saving is their money, and if they’re well off it won’t even be an issue. Not only that but all residents will be receiving $100 in June to offset the cost of the tax. It seems a little counterproductive. If you know you’re going to, essentially, get reimbursed then why would you attempt to save money anyway?
The only thing that will see the pain of this new tax are larger corporations, and there is nothing wrong with that either. Companies will end up paying for the majority of the tax, as they use the majority of the fossil fuels, but they won’t be getting money back - the people will be. Will this be incentive for companies to turn green?
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Hey there Katie, sorry for this, but your post on the “New” carbon tax is a bit off in it’s information. Read here (http://www.bclocalnews.com/bc_cariboo/100milefreepress/news/15833052.html) for some info on the stats of this so called Carbon Tax. I live in BC, Vancouver Island and the tax in question has NOTHING to do with carbon offsets or promoting “green alternatives”.
Our Premier is a bit of an idiot. He is more into corporations and the money he receives from those corporations. As you can see with the link I gave you, big business gets the 10% tax reduction, where the people (if you make over $70,000 a year) get 2%. But guess what … if you don’t make over $70,000, which I don’t and I bet you do not as well, you get NOTHING! This is a cash grab … look at what all the people say that live in BC and know what this guy does.
I am all for taxes, but the people I pay taxes to work for ME! Governments work for the people … you, me, and the people next store. So I have no issue with paying for a carbon tax … but put that tax towards alternative sources of energy, not bank it, invest it and make a profitable return on it and not put back. Increasing fuel costs doesn’t change the fact that we need to address our global responability. That form of action takes away from the working person who does NEEDS the fuel to bring the food to your table; the cloths for your back. Vancouver Island … we have an older population. So, do you think an 70 years old should ride their bike to the store and then carry their groceries back? Some can, some cannot. There needs to be a balance.
Your comment, (You live in BC, ride a bike!) Not cool my friend. Everyone has different needs and I believe we can work within those needs and be caring to our environment and the people.
I know we are all trying to do our very best and to find the best solutions, but you know as well as I do … robbing Peter to pay Paul doesn’t do anything … ie: use one credit card to pay the interest of the other credit card. Same thing, tax the people, then give them a tax break? Makes no sense!!!
February 28th, 2008 at 7:19 pm[...] Columbia recently became the first government in North America to implement a consumer-based carbon tax. The tax, which will take effect on July 1, 2008, will apply to gasoline, diesel, propane, [...]
March 6th, 2008 at 3:29 pmI live in BC — it is April the 23rd and it got below 0 last night and it snowed yesterday. The glib remark — you live in BC ride a bike — is indicative of the typical narrow thoughts that our government has too — only some of BC’s people live in Vancouver — there is a HUGE part of BC that is NOT the lower mainland…… and we are the ones who will pay for the tax — we have NO public transit, we live in a climate that gets cold for nearly 6 months a year and get no benefit from the money spent on the new green initiatives. So far the only thing I have seen that has come from this new initiative is more expensive gas, heating costs and groceries……
April 23rd, 2008 at 6:00 pmim totally confused with this tax credit thing….does this mean that ALL residents in bc are going to be getting 100$ in june? I have two adults and two kids in my house, so thats $400???? yikes. Not sure i agree with this whole tax credit thing. We live in langley and recently moved out here because it was more affordable to purchase a house. I’m a faithful walker / biker / rollerblader / public transit user and dont normally drive unless I have to but being out in Langley the bus system is so poor that i’ve actually been forced to purchase another vehicle. It was taking me twice as long to get anywhere! The other issue was the large streets out here, why would i want to risk life and limb to cross fraser hwy, 200th or any other busy street - its safer to do it in a vehicle!!!
May 21st, 2008 at 1:03 pmput my tax credit towards some safer roads or better transit. I dont need the money to make me want to use my own body to get around!!!!!