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EDITORIAL: Time to snuff out carbon tax

Issue: Carbon tax

We say: Losing credibility

"Let's join the rest of Canada and get off this sinking ship called the carbon tax."

Yellowknife North MLA Cory Vanthuyne in Hansard on Oct. 12.

 

Support for the Trudeau government's carbon tax is eroding across the country and the territorial government must now consider what's in it for the territory by sticking it out.

If Saskatchewan, Ontario and Manitoba consider the Liberal regime's plan for a nationwide carbon tax too onerous or unworkable for their jurisdictions – and P.E.I. and New Brunswick also having second thoughts – then why would anyone think it will work in the North?

In recent days, there has been a call in the legislative assembly for Premier Bob McLeod to stand up to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and refuse to collect his unpopular tax.

"Earlier this year, the GNWT outlined our carbon tax plan. Frankly, it doesn't seem to be strong enough to change anyone's behaviour. It's just going to move money from your left pocket to your right pocket. Simply put, it's a wash," stated Yellowknife North MLA Cory Vanthuyne on Oct. 12.

The MLA was in sync with previous Yellowknifer editorials which stated there is plenty of motivation for Northerners to be careful with – or to reduce – the use of fossil fuels because of the already extremely high cost to live here. Not to mention, the lack of commitment required from Ottawa to meaningfully address that.

The territorial government agreed to the federal proposal for a national carbon tax after signing the government’s Pan-Canadian Framework on Clean Growth and Climate Change in 2016. The federal framework was Trudeau's response to the 2015 Paris Agreement on climate change, which contains no enforcement mechanism for targets, and from which the United States has pulled out of altogether.

In the NWT, the scramble to meet these questionable agreements will cost $923 per household by 2022.

People waking up on July 1, 2019 will first see prices at gas pumps have shot up – to 4.7 cents per litre, increasing to 11.7 cents by 2020. Following that, food, clothing and building materials will be subject to higher transportation cost as the trucks coming North will be paying more for fuel. And the vehicles that move the materials around the city will also be paying higher gas prices.

“It’s the extra tax on gasoline that will have the immediate kind of impact that people will notice,” deputy finance minister David Stewart told a news conference in August.

A carbon tax will impact large emitters such as diamond mines. Each mine could be impacted $2 million to $3 million – or $9 million annually for the sector.

Sure, there will be rebates mailed out eventually and some families might even come out slightly ahead in the end. But it's easy to agree with Vanthuyne's position that the GNWT must seriously re-consider going along with the federal scheme.

And having federal Environment Minister Catherine McKenna flying to Yellowknife to drop off $23-million to be spent over four years on projects to greenhouse gas reduction projects in the NWT is pretty laughable. Sure, thanks for the cash but it's a drop in the bucket for what truly would be needed to wean us off diesel and other fuels in any significant way.

The GNWT has been investing millions into green technology – hydro, solar and wind – and there are several great examples of how that can work up here.

Pushing the Taltson River Project is a large part of the GNWT’s plan to lower emissions, and is a key component for the capital to lower diesel burning for electricity generation.

Here, in Yellowknife tenants already pay the highest rent in Canada, according to data from the Canada Mortgage and Housing Commission, and over the last few years the city has raised the fees for everything from utilities to recreation fees. Meanwhile, the territorial struggles to attract people to move here and will struggle even more when prices increase.

Just this week, Statistics Canada reported that the Yellowknife All-Items Consumer Price Index rose by 2.9 per cent in September compared to one year ago, that's higher than the average for Canada.

Climate change is impacting the North at a faster rate than other areas of the planet but there is little the territory and its tiny population can do to stop it, and adding a complicated and entirely symbolic tax scheme will have no impact either -- except make life harder for NWT residents.

Housing and transportation costs are already nearly impossible to deal with in the NWT and the last thing the territory’s economy needs is a tax that will scare off business.

And, in the end, that is all a carbon tax will do.

It's time to snuff this thing out. And let us find our own path to a greener way of living.