Also see:     
AOL/Microsoft-Hotmail Preventing Delivery of Truthout Communications    [

Also see below:     
Carbon Tax Focus of British Columbia Budget    [

    BC Introduces Carbon Tax
    By Jonathan Fowlie and Fiona Anderson
    The Vancouver Sun

    Tuesday 19 February 2008

Province is first jurisdiction in North America to have consumer-based carbon tax.

    Victoria - Driving and other fuel-dependent activities are about to get more expensive as British Columbia becomes the first jurisdiction in North America to introduce a consumer-based carbon tax.

    The carbon tax will apply to virtually all fossil fuels, including gasoline, diesel, natural gas, coal, propane, and home heating fuel. B.C.'s carbon tax, the provincial government claims, will be the most comprehensive in the world.

    However, Finance Minister Carole Taylor vowed Tuesday that all money collected through the new tax will be returned through a package of tax cuts and credits.

    "We have to find a way that we can work towards improving our environment, but at the same time do it in a way that keeps our economy strong," said Taylor, as she presented a budget that, aside from the carbon tax, commits $1 billion over four years to fight climate change.

    The $37.7 billion provincial budget also promises an additional $2.9 billion over three years for health care spending. That brings the total health budget to $13.8 billion for the coming year.

    Taylor said the new carbon tax will begin July 1, starting at a rate that will have drivers paying about an extra 2.4 cents per litre of gasoline at the pumps.

    If you drive a Prius hybrid, the government estimates the new tax will cost you about $20 extra per year. If you have a Dodge Ram pickup truck, that number will be closer to $68 it says.

    The tax will then increase each year after that until 2012, reaching a final price of about 7.2 cents per litre at the pumps.

    After that, Taylor said, it will rest with the government of the day to decide if the tax rate should change any further.

    "We've promised you green and today we've delivered green," said Taylor, dressed in green Fluevogs and a green suit for the occasion.

    "This is an important turning point for British Columbia and we think for Canada," she added, likening the climate-change budget measures as a "social movement."

    To help people adjust to the cost of the tax - which promises to achieve about 7.5 per cent of the government's legislated reductions by 2020 - all British Columbians will receive a one-time $100 cheque this June.

    "We want to bring in the benefits first," said Taylor.

    Corporate and personal income tax rates will drop to help make the tax revenue neutral, and lower-income British Columbians will receive an annual climate action credit of $100 per adult and $30 per child.

    Overall, the government estimates the carbon tax will bring in revenues of about $1.85 billion over the first three years - all of which it says will be returned to businesses and individuals.

    Estimates suggest businesses will pay two thirds of the carbon tax, and will receive only one third of the refunds. By contrast, individuals are expected to pay one third, while receiving two thirds of the credits.

    The move was seen as a huge win by environmentalists, who depicted B.C. as a leader in taking action on climate change.

    "I think this is a landmark decision in North America as far as government addressing global warming," said Ian Bruce of the Suzuki Foundation.

    "The B.C. government has decided to use one of the most powerful incentives at its disposal to reduce pollution," he added, saying he expects the move to help spur innovation.

    Lisa Matthaus of Sierra Club B.C. agreed.

    "This is the budget that is going to support the significant throne speech commitments from last year, in particular the carbon tax."

    Not everyone was equally supportive.

    "I think they were pretty quick to pull out the stick when it comes to accomplishing environmental objectives," said Laura Jones, vice-president at the Canadian Federation of Independent Business.

    "We know from our surveys that over 80 per cent of business owners are already taking action to get cleaner," she added, saying that is happening without a tax in place.

    "I don't think this is the best way to accomplish the goal of getting more environmentally friendly," she said, explaining she would rather have seen a greater focus on education and incentives.

    Niels Veldhuis of the Fraser Institute also took issue with the plan.

    "This was a lost opportunity for British Columbia in terms of improving the investment climate," he said.

    "We had a real and historic opportunity to improve our investment climate, to ensure our prosperity going forward by aggressively reducing business taxes and personal taxes."

    For example top earners in B.C. pay taxes almost 50 per cent higher than their counterparts in Alberta, he said.

    Instead of reducing taxes they chose to "change the mix," he said.

    Though the 2008 budget is clearly a green one, health care also figured heavily into the spending, accounting for more than one third of overall spending.

    The government says it will also reduce taxes above and beyond the carbon tax offset by $481 million over three years.

    It will also spend $787 million over four years to strengthen social services.

    Following the prudence that has become a trademark of Taylor's budgets, the finance minister is putting aside about $1 billion to deal with any surprises, such as larger than expected financial troubles in the United States.

 

---

    Go to Original

    Carbon Tax Focus of British Columbia Budget
    By Justine Hunter
    The Globe and Mail

    Wednesday 20 February 2008

Campbell government introduces carrot-and-stock enviro document in effort to curb greenhouse gases.

    Victoria - The B.C. government introduced North America's first full-fledged carbon tax yesterday, an attempt to engineer a social movement aimed at getting British Columbians to cut their greenhouse-gas emissions.

    The new tax will be tempered with matching income-tax cuts plus what is likely the province's largest-ever dividend to taxpayers.

    "We promised you green and today we delivered green," said Finance Minister Carole Taylor, who presented the changes as a way of encouraging environmentally friendly choices through a carrot-and-stick system. "If you start to change your lifestyle even modestly ... you will have extra dollars in your pocket," she said.

    The $37.7-billion budget boosts program spending, increases the debt and forecasts the slowest economic growth for the province since 2001. The economy and debt were not top of mind for Ms. Taylor, who stuck to a green theme in everything from the budget cover to her outfit.

    "This is an important turning point for British Columbia - and we think for Canada - because we are out in front on this," she said.

    The first change British Columbians will see is a feel-good "climate-change dividend" worth $100 a person, expected to arrive in the mail by June.

    The dividend won't purchase much in the way of energy-saving changes - it could buy two months worth of bus passes or a programmable thermostat - but it is designed to soften the impact of the new energy tax that takes effect July 1.

    The tax on virtually all fossil fuels, including gasoline, diesel and home heating fuel, will rise and continue to climb over the next five years. The price of gas is expected to increase this year by 2.4 cents a litre.

    The carbon tax promises to be revenue neutral, but does not account for increased costs in other areas, such as the planned hike in B.C. Hydro rates. Critics noted that if Hydro's rate application is approved, the average household will pay about $200 a year in extra energy costs.

    The opposition New Democratic Party said the budget does too much for business at the expense of working families.

    "It's a great day for banks and big polluters. Banks got a huge tax break and polluters don't have to pay the carbon tax," NDP finance critic Bruce Ralston said. The budget states that industrial emissions from the production of oil, gas, cement and other sectors will not be subject to the tax initially.

    "But it asks consumers to spend money they don't have to fight climate change," Mr. Ralston said.

    The dividend will likely be a distant memory by the time British Columbians go to the polls in May, 2009, but Jim Sinclair, head of the B.C. Federation of Labour, still labelled it an election stunt.

    "I imagine the company guys here today are going to be quite happy, but to the average British Columbian, that 100 bucks is a cheap election trick and it won't go far."

    In fact, business leaders arrived at the budget briefing in Victoria braced for a fight over this budget, after weeks of speculation that the green agenda might harm the fragile B.C. economy. But most left with either praise or at least muted criticism.

    "We were prepared to be aggressively negative," said John Winter of the B.C. Chamber of Commerce. He said Ms. Taylor didn't completely satisfy the concerns of business, "but she presented her case well."

    Ms. Taylor's budget puts a price on greenhouse-gas emissions that is low by global market standards - just $10 per tonne to start - but it is the first jurisdiction in Canada to do so. The price will rise to $30 a tonne in five years.

    It is designed to discourage use of fossil fuels to the point where it reduces a total of three million tonnes of greenhouse gases in B.C. over the next five years. That is a small fraction of the 40 million tonnes the province is supposed to eliminate by 2020.

    For the first time the government put a price on the economic impact of its global-warming agenda, which this year adds up to $167-million in lost economic growth.

    However, Ms. Taylor said the tax cuts are the answer to the concerns of business, because they will help B.C.'s competitive climate with some of the lowest tax rates in the country.

    The budget, which contains a large section printed on green-tinted paper, offers an unusual feature: a section outlining how individuals can save money by going green. It puts a price tag on weatherizing windows, walking to work and replacing an old furnace.

    Environmentalists hailed the budget as a landmark in the battle against global warming.

    "A carbon tax makes polluting more expensive and being green more affordable," said Ian Bruce, climate-change specialist for the David Suzuki Foundation.

    But the Canadian Taxpayers Federation said Ms. Taylor ignored her own prebudget consultation report that did not find broad support for a carbon tax.