A B.C. Liberal operative was out with the online spin hours before Premier Christy Clark the much-leaked news in a Friday afternoon announcement at an obscure location in Richmond.
The, er, freeze is continuing for B.C.B次元官网网址檚 ground-breaking, world-saving carbon tax, which hasnB次元官网网址檛 changed since before Clark was elected in 2013.
The spin was Olympic-themed, with a picture labeled to show B.C. as a swimmer far out in the lead in the pool, to symbolize that itB次元官网网址檚 the other provinces that need to catch up in the race to save the planet.
Clark has been saying that for years, and there is merit to it. Even without a tax on B次元官网网址減rocess emissionsB次元官网网址� such as from cement kilns, B.C.B次元官网网址檚 carbon tax encourages imports of non-taxed cement from the U.S. and China.
Alberta business professor Andrew Leach, who advised the Stephen Harper and then Rachel Notley governments on greenhouse gas policies, summed up the problem this way.
B次元官网网址淯ntil the rest of the world has policies that impose similar cost, youB次元官网网址檙e not actually reducing emissions to the extent you think,B次元官网网址� Leach said. B次元官网网址淵ouB次元官网网址檙e just displacing the emissions and the economic activity to other jurisdictions.B次元官网网址�
Alberta is moving to join B.C. with a modest carbon tax, but the NDP government plans to spend the proceeds rather than return them in income tax as B.C. has done. And Washington state and most of the rest of the world have no carbon tax as such, so their businesses benefit from B.C.B次元官网网址檚 B次元官网网址渃limate leadership.B次元官网网址�
B.C.B次元官网网址檚 foreign-funded eco-radical community was, needless to say, appalled. The Pembina InstituteB次元官网网址檚 Matt Horne and career protesters Tzeporah Berman and Merran Smith were named to the premierB次元官网网址檚 advisory committee last year, along with business, academic and aboriginal representatives.
They concluded that increases to B.C.B次元官网网址檚 broad-based tax on carbon fuels should resume its upward march in 2018.
When it comes to climate leadership, BC is the Katy Ledecky of Canada.
B次元官网网址� laura miller (@laurakmiller)
Other committee members, including the mayors of Surrey, Comox and Burns Lake, were not heard from. Public discussion on this issue is now reduced to a staged conflict between those who demand a holy war on deadly carbon dioxide B次元官网网址減ollution,B次元官网网址� and those who donB次元官网网址檛 care if their grandchildren perish in a hell-fire of fossil fuel use.
WeB次元官网网址檝e just come off another El Nino year, like the hot year of 1998. Regular readers will recall the last time I discussed this topic was this spring, where I questioned the premierB次元官网网址檚 dire warnings of another horrendous forest fire season.
What followed has been one of the forest fire seasons in the last decade, although dry conditions have finally emerged this month. Climate predictions, like next weekB次元官网网址檚 weather forecast, are less than consistent.
I am regularly sent messages calling me a B次元官网网址渃limate change denier,B次元官网网址� the nonsense term that continues to be used by federal Environment Minister Catharine McKenna among many others. I know of no one who denies that climate is always changing, at times dramatically.
If you wish to believe that paying an extra seven cents a litre for gasoline in B.C. is helping to slow the very gradual increase in temperatures weB次元官网网址檙e seeing in the northern hemisphere, you are free to do so.
You may even be persuaded to take a government subsidy and buy an expensive, short-range electric car. Me, IB次元官网网址檓 off to Prince Rupert and Revelstoke pretty soon, so IB次元官网网址檒l stick with my little four-cylinder gas sipper for now.
Hydro-powered B.C. represents a small fraction of the less than two per cent Canada contributes to global greenhouse gas emissions. WeB次元官网网址檙e not the problem, and no, the world is not looking to us for guidance.
Tom Fletcher is B.C. legislature reporter and columnist for Black Press. Email: tfletcher@blackpress.ca Twitter:
