Monday, February 25, 2008
OTTAWA - The average Canadian would see a 50 per cent income tax cut if the federal government phased in a new tax to crack down on activities that produce the pollution linked to global warming, a new report said Monday.
"There is a lingering misconception that a carbon price is nothing more than a tax grab," said the report, Pricing Carbon: Saving Green - a carbon price to lower emissions, taxes and barriers to green technology.
"While the receipt of substantial revenue - more than $50 billion per year - accompanies any effective carbon price, the revenue is simply the byproduct of putting a price on carbon emissions."
The study was unveiled jointly by environmentalist David Suzuki and Mark Jaccard, an economist and professor from Simon Fraser University who heads a consulting firm that produced the report.
"Millions of Canadians are taking steps each day to conserve energy, whether by taking public transit, changing their light bulbs or turning down their thermostat. These Canadians should be rewarded," said Suzuki. "Meanwhile, carbon-intensive industries and activities severely damage our climate at no charge to the polluter."
The report said a new tax should be phased in to shift the tax burden onto activities that generate a lot of pollution, without increasing government tax revenues.
"While most Canadians have to pay about $90 a tonne to dump waste at their local municipal landfill, anyone can dump thousands of tonnes of carbon into the atmosphere absolutely free of charge," said the report. "The bottom line: we must stop using our atmosphere as a free dumping ground."
The report said the government would have to carefully manage its revenues with policies to encourage energy efficiency and programs such as home energy retrofits. But it would allow Canada to reduce emissions to avoid dangerous changes to the climate and the earth's ecosystems.
"An income-tax cut for Canadians for example, can fully offset the additional revenue that the carbon price generates," said the report. "One further benefit is that Canadians would end up paying taxes on polluting activities, which discourages pollution, instead of paying taxes on desirable activities such as employment."
Mike De Souza
Canwest News Service
mdesouzacanwest.com
