I've got to hand it to St. Andrew's Anglican Church in Pender Harbour. Their letter sent to B.C. finance minister Carole Taylor last December is one of the reasons why B.C. is now the first jurisdiction in North America to implement a consumer carbon tax.
In delivering the $37.7 billion budget on Tuesday, Taylor scored a moral victory for green economists. Let's face it: at just $10 per ton of greenhouse gasses (GHGs), this tax lacks teeth. But it starts the shift towards a greener economy by undeniably acknowledging that these emissions are no longer a business externality.
The tax aims to be revenue-neutral, which means money collected through the carbon tax will go towards filling the budget holes created by reduced personal income and business taxes. It's a tax shift: for the next few years, the higher prices we'll pay to fill our gas tanks and heat our homes will be roughly balanced by lower income taxes we'll pay.
St. Andrew's had asked for a carbon tax "high enough to influence decision making with regards to lifestyle choice." Many B.C. economists say $30 per ton is the level that will start to influence business decision making, and this tax won't do that until around 2012. Right now, this tax (which won't kick in until July) is symbolic at best - media hype about the 2.4 cents extra we'll pay per litre of gas still amounts to less than $80 extra the average driver will have to spend this year. And the one-time $100 cheque the government will send out this summer will help the medicine go down easily.
Reactions to the tax have been unpredictable; the B.C. Chamber of Commerce is happy with it, since the carbon tax is too slight too scare off any business in the next few years, while the Canadian Federation of Independent Businesses is convinced it will chase business out of the province. Doubters claim it won't change people's gas-guzzling habits, but the province expects it to account for 7.5 per cent of the government's legislated GHG reductions of 33 per cent from 2007 until 2020. That means an actual cut of just under 2.5 per cent of B.C.'s greenhouse gases, which won't mean a lot globally. Still, it's a start. It's been suggested a carbon tax could hurt the poor. But right now, it lacks the teeth to hurt anyone, especially when many other parts of the budget affect our well-being more immediately. Singling out the carbon tax for hurting the poor is like blaming a Canucks' loss on bad ice.
Halfmoon Bay resident David Dranchuk, a co-ordinator for the B.C. Anglican Church, calls climate change "the most pressing moral, ethical and spiritual issue of our time," and I think he's got a point. People like Dranchuk sent letters to Taylor, and she acknowledged that input was a big part of her decision.
The tax has loopholes: planes and ships that leave B.C. don't pay it. And the province still needs to shift oil and gas subsidies towards other energy producers and curb highway expansion plans if they really want to make the 33 per cent GHG reduction plan. But it opens the door to the shift society will have to make, sooner or later.
