Finally Some Sanity? NDP Promises to Scrap BC Carbon Tax

Canadian Press
BURNABY, B.C. — Five days before the May 12 election campaign kicks off, B.C. New Democrats are trying to pin the tax-and-spend label they’ve previously been forced to wear on the two-term incumbent Liberals.The NDP, chased from power in 2001 under accusations of fiscal incompetence, unveiled an election platform Thursday that features tax cuts and modest spending increases, adding up to three years of deficits.NDP leader Carole James painted the Liberals under Premier Gordon Campbell as bad managers, misreading the depth of the recession, accepting a massive cost over-run for the new Vancouver convention centre and tying the province to dubious public-private partnership projects.”This is no time to increase taxes on families and small businesses,” she said.”Gordon Campbell plans to triple the gas tax; I will scrap it. I’ll give business and average families a tax break.”An NDP promise to eliminate the Liberals’ carbon tax on fossil fuel is the biggest single element in the party’s fiscal plan, costing the government around $1.8 billion over three years.The carbon tax, first imposed last July, stands at 2.4 cents a litre but is slated to rise steadily as a way of taxing greenhouse gas emissions.The government calls the measure revenue neutral thanks to personal income tax cuts and rebate checks.But James said the tax has been a failure. It hasn’t reduced fuel consumption and is a hardship on struggling families.Read more here and here in The Province.Watch Climatologist Timothy Ball’s opinion on the BC Carbon Tax scam: