Premier John Horgan:
I am writing to find out if you can help me make sense of something which seems to defy all logic. For nearly a decade, we have paid a carbon tax and GST on that carbon tax in B.C. The intention in implementing that tax was to discourage use of fossil fuels. While it enjoyed some success in the first few years; nevertheless, according to the government’s own statistics, GHG emissions are trending back up to pre-carbon-tax levels.
Now we have Fortis BC offering a significant cash incentive for switching to natural gas as a heating energy source. Unless I missed a major new scientific discovery, natural gas is a fossil fuel whose combustion emits greenhouse gasses. The added irony is that during the warmer months of the year, Fortis BC customers’ bills often show more in charges for carbon tax and GST than they do for the gas they actually consume.
How can you reconcile on the one hand making B.C. residents pay an escalating carbon tax as a disincentive to fossil fuel use while allowing Fortis BC to offer incentives to increase fossil fuel use, thereby countering the carbon tax’s purpose?
And on the subject of carbon tax, why are the proceeds funnelled into general revenues instead of being set aside for incentives for people to switch away from fossil fuels?
Keith Ujvary, Gibsons
