This for many of us this is a magical, Disneyish time of year. We are, I guess, fortunate to have as our country’s leader a magician housed in the castle like fortress on Parliament Hill and who with the snap of a mask strap can make things appear just to make things disappear. He can do this because his is protected from failure by an invincible power generated by the electoral triangle of Montreal, Ottawa, and Toronto.
By now reams of pages have been opined on the snap decision by the federal government to increase the carbon fee, levy, charge, tax from $30/tonne today to $170 in 2030. This will mean that the carbon tax content at the pump or loading rack will jump from today’s 6.6 cents per litre (cpl) to 35.7 cpl for gasolines while diesel and jet fuel will increase from 8.0 cpl to 45.9 cpl. But that is just a political sleight of hand because the last item on the shopping list of taxes in the end price to you the consuming taxpayer is the HST which if the feds don’t increase this as well (don’t bet on that one) will mean that the final can’t-phone-a-friend carbon tax will be 40.3 cpl for gasolines and 51.8 cpl for diesel and jet fuel.
Say it ain’t so but that’s not true either. As mentioned in last week’s report, the pollution crusaders will also be triggering the Clean Fuel Standard (CFS) which will now only apply the gasolines and diesel with natural gas miraculously escaping complete with its pollutants. With refiners being forced to formulate their transportation fuels with more bio-this and bio-that content look for the prices to increase in the range of 2 to15 cpl. So, let’s add that to the carbon tax calculation using 10 cpl. This will bring gasoline up by 45.7 cpl by 2030 while diesel will increase by stratospheric 61.8 cpl.
Wait a minute! I mean why wait until 2030? If this is such a great way to save the planet then save it now for goodness sake! Increase the price at the pumps on January 2, 2021 by 45.7 cents a litre. Didn’t the feds say that most of us will be getting the carbon portion back and then some? Now that a magic trick I will pay to see or maybe I already have. Then when this is done call a federal election on January 3. Then see what a good idea the carbon tax is. Better wax those skis it’s going to be a tricky run on that political downhill run.
Meanwhile back at the reality ranch, the US has no federal carbon tax China is not on board with any Paris commitment and the Russians don’t give a flyin fadoo about it anyway.
But Canada will carry on relentlessly stamping out pollution on its own. And that’s the disturbing part of Ottawa’s plan. The fact that seems to escape our government is that our contribution to global emissions is almost invisible and our proclamations on the world stage inaudible. Were our population at China’s 2 billion or even that of the USA (ten times ours), and had either had enacted a carbon penalty on its populace then Canada should go all in and I would be leading the charge. But going alone for stage presence on a dimly lit stage with no audience is just penalizing the economic well-being of the entire country.
While those in Ottawa amaze themselves with illusions of grandeur, the financial future of Canada and its populace will be, as a result, suffering from contusions of political glamour.
– Roger McKnight – B.Sc., Senior Petroleum Analyst
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