Raising carbon tax an admission of failure

Vincent J. Curtis

13 Dec 20

RE: Climate plan includes carbon tax hikes.  Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced that the federal carbon tax would be raised to $170 per tonne by 2030 in order to achieve the desired reduction of Canadian CO2 emissions.

Hiking the carbon tax is an admission of failure.  The frog was supposed to be cooked at $30 and then $40 a tonne, but now the temperature in the pot has to be raised to $170 per tonne.  You have to wonder who thought of this, and why are they flogging this dead horse?

The theory is that if you raise taxes on something, you get less of it.  Raising taxes on carbon was supposed to smoothly reduce the use of it to produce CO2, and it was just a matter of finding the right price.  British Columbia had a $30 per tonne provincial tax on carbon, achieved nothing, and so raised it to $40.  Results are inconclusive.  Before the 2019 election, Climate Change Prevention Minister Catherine McKenna said that a federal tax of $30 a tonne would achieve the government’s goal of reduction of CO2 emissions.  When asked to explain how that number was arrived at, it turned out to be a SWG – a scientific wild guess.

The government has no idea if carbon taxes work, but their tax scheme will generate a huge flow of cash that the government can direct towards its chosen winners and deny to its chosen losers.

The losers will be the middle and working classes, who have to drive to work and for work.  The tax doesn’t change the chemical reaction by which hematite ore is converted to pig iron by smelting with coal product, so Hamilton’s steel industry is harmed.  Meanwhile, the work of University of Guelph economist Ross McKitrick is ignored because the lawyers and drama coaches in government don’t like what he has to say about their pet tax.

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