Pembroke, Ontario - Cheryl Gallant, MP Renfrew-Nipissing-Pembroke, was pleased recently to address the Kiwanis Club of Pembroke on the Opposition proposal to levy a “tax on everything” or so-called carbon tax on all Canadians.
“I was pleased to re-assure Kiwanis Club members that Prime Minister Stephen Harper has made it very clear that our policy is to reduce taxes. Our government has no intention of raising new taxes for a new gun registry, or any other silly promise by the opposition. The liberal gun registry was supposed to be “revenue neutral,” just like the proposed carbon tax. That bad idea ending up costing taxpayers over a billion dollars” stated MP Cheryl Gallant.
A carbon tax is described as the GST on steroids. It will literally be a permanent tax on everything. While the direct cost per household will depend on many different factors, at minimum, a broad based carbon tax will increase costs for each Canadian by about $100 a year for every $10 charged per tonne of carbon dioxide. That calculation does not include the impact on the tens of thousands of Canadians who face unemployment or the fact that GST type taxes impact most heavily on low wage, fixed income households, particularly students, seniors and the disabled.
“Local residents already concerned over the high cost of energy will be in for the shock of their lives when they go to the gas pumps or open their home heating fuel bill if Stephane Dion gets his way. The only way to guard against a future tax increase of this magnitude is to make sure Dion and his party are never elected,” said Cheryl Gallant, MP.
While we can measure direct costs, indirect costs promise to be significantly higher. Higher fuel prices increase costs throughout the economy by increasing the costs of transportation, production and distribution of virtually all goods and services in the economy. Businesses will be obligated to pass on these costs to households, creating a vicious, and inflationary spiral.
The reason given for a new carbon tax is to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. The truth of the matter is a carbon tax has less to do with the environment and everything to do with economics.
The proposed carbon tax is designed to transfer the wealth of rural Canada where we produce the vast agriculture, mineral, forestry, fisheries and energy wealth of this nation to the urban centres. From the urban centres, the Kyoto Accord kicks in. Kyoto is a United Nations treaty designed to transfer wealth from the developed world from countries like Canada, to the developing world by charging the developed countries for the right to emit carbon.
It is no wonder that 143 developing nations, led by China, did not sign onto Kyoto to reduce carbon emissions, or the inconvenient truth that when Al Gore was US Vice-President, the USA, the largest economy in the developed world, refused to ratify the Kyoto Accord.
A carbon tax will put severe restrictions on our economy and place Canada at a significant disadvantage when it comes to trading with countries that have no such restrictions on their industrial activity.
