I watched the rage of the “gilets jaunes” in France over the raising of gas taxes to fund their climate change agenda. French taxes are already high and gasoline costs $7.00/ gallon. I guess they figured enough is enough. France also gets 75% of its electricity from nuclear that produce zero C02 but the Macron government wants to shut them down. If you hate C02 why do you also hate nuclear power?
Trudeau’s Liberals in December of 2016 decided to impose the Pan Canadian Framework on Climate Change. There were a lot of regulatory issues in there but the key provision was a carbon tax. The Feds wanted to impose a $20/ton tax on carbon emissions that would increase by $10 per year until it reached $50/ton. I began to consider the carbon tax dispute in Canada. A number of provinces are planning not to play ball with the Feds and Trudeau has vowed to stick one on them if they don’t do a carbon tax themselves. Of course, our BC leaders are all-in on a carbon tax. BC already has one that began in 2008 at $10 per ton and will hit $35/ton next year.
I started to wonder what a ton of carbon dioxide looks like and how much the average Canadian generated. The best example I found was an analysis of a three-car family (a Civic, a Prius and a pick-up). Driving 16,000 miles a year, their autos alone would generate 9 tons of C02. At $50/ton that’s $450 just for the cars!
In the last election, no one had a majority, so the left leaning NDP joined forces with the Green party to form a government. I get it that neither of the two leaders has any business experience whatsoever, so I should not be surprised that they seem intent on destroying the BC economy. Early on, they passed the Medical Services Plan that shifted some of the modest health care fees from individuals to employers. If an employer has a total payroll of $500,000 they pay 2.95% of their payroll. If the payroll is over $1,500,000 they pay 1.95%. That seems a perfect job-killing program.
Now the NDP/Greens have introduced a Clean BC and carbon-reduction plan. It calls for reduction of C02 by 40% from 2007 levels by 2030. They want every car sold in BC to be a zero emission vehicle by 2040. It targets homes, offices and industry. Not only is this going to be impossible, it will be tremendously costly in dollars and jobs. What business would want to be in BC with this kind of stuff going on?
With this clown dance going on, I began to wonder why the Feds and in particular, the BC government, seemed bent on destroying the Canadian economy over CO2. Failure to build a pipeline to the coast alone is costing us $80 million per day. I mused that Canada must be a big contributor of carbon dioxide to warrant such sacrifices on our economy? It did not take much research to discover that Canada produces only 1.7% of the world’s CO2. According to the Environment and Climate Change Canada Agency, BC produces only 5% of this total. In other words, BC produces .00085 % of world C02. If Canada stopped emitting CO2 tomorrow, if BC shut down every car and factory, drilling operation and killed every flatulent heifer in Canada, and reduced our carbon footprint to a single molecule, our impact of climate change would be….. essentially zero!
If you are a true believer and are convinced that CO2 is the villain, why don’t you accept that Canada is also a net absorber of CO2. According to a piece by F. Larry Martin in the Financial Post (March 2, 2016) Canada absorbs about 20 to 30% MORE CO2 than it emits. Even if you live in the concrete enclaves of Canada’s cities you surely have to acknowledge that Canada has a Hell of a lot of trees out there that need C02 to survive and grow, not to mention vast fields of grain, hay and corn that need it too. So, why would we impose destructive economic policies on Canadians when we are already carbon neutral? Good question. Perhaps this is a good time to “follow the money” and question our leadership on their financial and scientific ignorance.
Got any yellow jackets in your closet?