The Provincial Carbon tax made for some discussion in the British Columbia Legislature on Tuesday, with Skeena MLA Ellis Ross noting how the Province's implementation of a Carbon Tax is continuing to cause financial hardship for residents of British Columbia, while padding the Government's budget.
"Lets talk about making life easier, in terms of the two percent of the friends of this House, LNG Canada was given the largest PST Tax Break in BC history, all we're asking is to give citizens of BC the same break.
They were given a break on the Carbon Tax at thirty bucks a tonne, which is something that this side of the House when we were government froze it at, because we realized it meant something good for the people of British Columbia" -- Skeena MLA Ellis Ross
The MLA's commentary making for some back and forth in the Tuesday Question Period, the question for the Premier one that asked
"Why is the Premier making life increasingly unaffordable for British Columbians through his relentless carbon tax hikes"
The answers came by way of two NDP Ministers, Josie Osborne the Minister of Energy and Mines countering the Carbon Tax question with a review of some of their recent initiatives towards assistance to the public in a range of areas.
Housing Minister Ravi Khalon for his part made note of what the NDP calls frequent flip flopping by the Opposition parties.
The full debate was highlighted by the MLA through his social media Stream.
More notes from the Legislature can be reviewed here.
It's disappointing to see BC United get on the "axe the tax" bandwagon, which ironically was the NDP's failed slogan in the 2009 election.
ReplyDeleteWhen Canada reneged on the Kyoto Accord and then refused to sign on to the Paris Agreement, British Columbia under the BC Liberals and likewise California under Governor Arnold Schwarzenneger were regarded internationally as the two North American leaders on climate policy. Generally those approaches have been successful and certainly better than doing little or nothing under the guise of "making things easier" while much of the rest of the world is transitioning to renewable energy at a greater pace than we are.
What seems to be motivating BC United is that polls suggest that the resurrected BC Conservatives are eating away at their support. Hopefully BC United will have the courage to remain as a centrist party rather than just the denialist (and culture warrior) right under a different name.
Going down the road of regarding the carbon tax as a "tax grab", as Ellis is doing, would eventually mean that many people would be worse off because they would lose the Climate Action rebate, which is a topic that none of the detractors federal or provincial seem willing to talk about.
Ellis Ross is nothing but a shill for the climate destroying oil and gas industry. LNG Canada should pay the same carbon tax as everyone else in this province. After all, they will be the biggest contributor to GHG emissions in BC.
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