[Canada] New Carbon Tax Plan

[VCR_CAT]

http://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/canada-trudeau-climate-change-1.3788825

 

Canadian Liberal Government plans on implementing a new "benchmark" minimum carbon tax price required for provinces to follow at $10 per tonne of carbon in 2018, then raise the price by $10 per year until it's $50 per tonne in 2022. Provinces are free to choose the model in which this carbon tax is implemented, be it Cap and Trade or some equivalent.

 

However, there is criticism on this new plan as it does force provincial governments to follow these minimum benchmarks instead of choosing the price and system alone in its entirety. Particular provinces that have issue with this proposal involve Alberta (with a very large oil industry from the oil sands; which has a significant impact on the environment) and Saskatchewan (a lot of agriculture as well as having some of the largest potash mines in the world, and producing significant amounts of potash). Trudeau's "Strong arm" approach is being both criticized and praised for how it works (called a "Sledgehammer" approach), with some reporters commenting that "But if, 50 years from now, the worst that can be said of Justin Trudeau's implementation of a national plan on climate change is that he wasn't terribly polite about it, he will have presumably done fairly well for himself." (http://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/wherry-trudeau-carbon-pricing-1.3789417)

 

 

[~~~~]

It's a simple case of too little too late where climate change is concerned. We should have been looking at carbon taxes in the 80s.

 

For context, 12 tonnes of carbon (per person per year) is the UK national average. My dad, who has won an award for having the lowest carbon footprint in the country, is annually responsible for 1 tonne of carbon. However, this also includes things like your choice of diet, which might be considered the producer's fault under this taxation.

 

I think he should go straight in with the $50 per tonne personally. 5 years might not sound like a long time, but time is counting quickly when it comes to anthropogenic climate change.

 

However, generally speaking, this is awesome. Let's now make it global and it might be 2 proverbial drops in the proverbial ocean instead of just 1.

[(GigaDrillBreaker)]

an award for having the lowest carbon footprint in the country

This exists?

[~~~~]

This exists?

It was done by the charity Oxfam in 2008, but I don't know about other years.

[~ P O L A R I S ~]

A much preferable "strong arm approach" to Duterte's.

[Susie]

Us Canadians are pretty much all bark but no bite when it comes down to environmental issues, glad that were finally getting some bark into us. Hopefully itll make changes.