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Bringing about a higher level of transparency and accountability in provincial and federal governments to help protect taxpayers from abuse

Bringing about a higher level of transparency and accountability in provincial and federal governments to help protect taxpayers from abuse.

Canada’s phony debate about carbon taxes

In the Ontario PC leadership race, all four candidates hoping to replace Patrick Brown as leader oppose carbon taxes, a centrepiece of Brown’s Tory platform. The federal Conservative Party also opposes carbon taxes.

Some commentators see this as a betrayal of Conservative free-market instincts because (supposedly) our choice is between inefficient bureaucratic regulation and the enlightened Liberal approach of using price-signals to hit greenhouse gas targets. According to this reasoning, economically-literate Conservatives should prefer the latter.

Read more at Maclean’s

The great carbon scam

One thing you learn on the climate change beat is that the best journalism is done overseas.

In Canada, too many in the media, not knowing the issues, are empty vessels waiting to be filled by Trudeau government propaganda, which they uncritically regurgitate to their audiences.

By contrast, in the UK, one of many examples of serious reporting is a new radio documentary by the BBC’s environment correspondent, Matt McGrath.

Called “Carbon Counting,” McGrath reveals how many nations that signed the Paris accord are inaccurately reporting and/or hiding their greenhouse gas emissions from the United Nations.

Reporting is done once every two years, but the accord doesn’t require independent verification of the numbers.

Read more at Toronto Sun

The impact of a federal carbon tax on Canadian businesses

The federal government recently announced that it is implementing a federal carbon tax starting at $10 per metric tonne in 2018, which will increase by $10 per metric tonne of GHG emissions every year until hitting the $50 per metric tonne mark in 2022.

The carbon tax will come into effect in any provinces that do not have a carbon tax in place by 2018. This currently includes Saskatchewan, Manitoba, New Brunswick, P.E.I., Newfoundland and Labrador and Nova Scotia.

Read more at woodbusiness.ca

It’s not a carbon tax, it’s a ‘behaviour-changing measure’: government officials

The Liberal government today released the carbon-pricing scheme it will impose on any province or territory that, by spring 2018, doesn’t have its own comparable scheme in place.

As of today, 97 per cent of Canadians live in provinces that either already have a price on carbon pollution, or are planning and working toward it, Environment Minister Catherine McKenna said Thursday.

The three per cent of Canadians left out of that equation are in Saskatchewan – the one province that continues to hold out on signing on to the Trudeau government’s climate change plan.

read more at globalnews.ca

Don’t be duped by Trudeau’s carbon pricing plan

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s carbon pricing plan released Thursday by Climate Change Minister Catherine McKenna is a political fraud.

It will not achieve the government’s promised industrial greenhouse gas emission reduction targets for 2020 or 2030.

It will increase the cost of living for Canadians, adding hundreds of dollars to their annual household bills, year after year.

The plan says that by 2022, we will be paying an estimated 11.6 cents more per litre of gas alone, solely due to carbon pricing.

read more at torontosun.com

Alberta government officials are carbon tax hypocrites

Alberta’s NDP MLAs sure talk a good game about the environment. They talk the talk, but they aren’t walking the walk.

The government is slapping a multi-million dollar carbon tax on Albertan families and businesses, further taxing people for driving their kids to school and heating their homes in the winter.

Don’t like it? Change your lifestyle, they say. Drive less, or drive a smaller car.

Meanwhile, Alberta taxpayers forked over $2.8 million to purchase vehicles for Alberta government bureaucrats and ministers. Some were luxury vehicles. Most were SUVs and pick-up trucks. Gas-guzzlers.

Taxpayers also pay for the gas, which will soon cost more thanks to the carbon tax.

Why are government officials – so focused on reducing carbon emissions – driving around in pick-up trucks and SUVs? Surely a more fuel-efficient fleet would be more appropriate?

“As someone who spends six hours a week on the QE2, and does that in treacherous road conditions, I need to have a vehicle that is appropriate for the driving conditions,” said Service Alberta Minister Stephanie McLean. “Any minister and deputy minister needs to have a vehicle that is safe and can contend with the treacherous road conditions that we have in the winter.”

Funny. Staying safe on sometimes-treacherous roads is exactly why other Albertans drive trucks and SUVs, too.

Source: http://www.therebel.media/alberta_government_officials_are_carbon_tax_hypocrites

Carbon tax divides nation: Trudeau announcement sparks walkouts, ultimatums

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau took to his feet in the House of Commons earlier this week to announce a national carbon tax that will force provinces to put a minimum price on carbon or set up a cap and trade system to tax emissions.

Designed to address climate change and ensure all regions of the country are paying for their greenhouse gas emissions, the announcement sparked walkouts from a climate meeting in Montreal, demands for pipeline quid pro quo, as well as a number of endorsements and shows of support.

The federal plan calls for a $10-per-tonne floor price starting in 2018, eventually rising to $50 a tonne in 2022—two-thirds higher than what Alberta’s price will be in 2018. Trudeau said the federal government will implement a price in any province or territory that doesn’t have either a carbon price or a cap-and-trade system in place by 2018.

Immediately after the announcement, which Saskatchewan Premier Brad Wall called a “betrayal,” the prairie province, Newfoundland and Labrador, Nova Scotia and Alberta had all but joined the opposing camp.

Source: http://www.canadianmanufacturing.com/regulation/carbon-tax-divides-nation-trudeau-announcement-sparks-applause-walkouts-and-ultimatums-176805/