Alberta's new climate change strategy could include new fuel, heating taxes, political expert says
Hikes in heating bills and at gas pumps may be a cost to consumers coming out of the Alberta NDP’s climate change strategy, one political expert believes.
Still, the strategy will be met with a lot of positive response, Mount Royal University’s Duane Bratt believes.
Even if it is likely rushed, he said.
Bratt said the strategy, to be unveiled Sunday in Edmonton, had to be ready before Monday’s meeting between Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Canada’s premiers in Ottawa, and then an international climate summit in Paris starting on Nov. 30.
“I think this will be a good sentiment going into (Monday) — Alberta is trying to do something big and bold in the climate change area,” Bratt said.
Bratt predicts the strategy will include a timetable to transition away from coal, and a carbon tax covering producers and consumers.
“That would be a tax on your heating bill, that would be a tax at the gas pump,” he said.
“Those would be the two most obvious ways of doing that.”
Bratt figures the province’s natural gas industry will be happy with the climate change strategy.
The coal industry and rural municipalities supporting it, however, maybe not so much, Bratt said.
The federal Conservatives, the Wildrose and Saskatchewan parties may offer some backlash also, he said.
Tax grab is a term that’s likely to be bandied about, he said.
And he added there may be something to that.
“It depends how big the amount is,” he said.
“If you’re in the situation where you’re running a large deficit, you don’t want to introduce a provincial sales tax — they’ve already raised taxes (and) I don’t see any sentiment for cutting spending so the only way that deficit is going to get lower is if oil rebounds or you find a new revenue source.
“I think a carbon tax is a way around that.”
Source: Alberta's new climate change strategy could include new fuel, heating taxes, pol
........................
Only justice here is the Dippers will be having to pay up for their vote as well.
Hikes in heating bills and at gas pumps may be a cost to consumers coming out of the Alberta NDP’s climate change strategy, one political expert believes.
Still, the strategy will be met with a lot of positive response, Mount Royal University’s Duane Bratt believes.
Even if it is likely rushed, he said.
Bratt said the strategy, to be unveiled Sunday in Edmonton, had to be ready before Monday’s meeting between Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Canada’s premiers in Ottawa, and then an international climate summit in Paris starting on Nov. 30.
“I think this will be a good sentiment going into (Monday) — Alberta is trying to do something big and bold in the climate change area,” Bratt said.
Bratt predicts the strategy will include a timetable to transition away from coal, and a carbon tax covering producers and consumers.
“That would be a tax on your heating bill, that would be a tax at the gas pump,” he said.
“Those would be the two most obvious ways of doing that.”
Bratt figures the province’s natural gas industry will be happy with the climate change strategy.
The coal industry and rural municipalities supporting it, however, maybe not so much, Bratt said.
The federal Conservatives, the Wildrose and Saskatchewan parties may offer some backlash also, he said.
Tax grab is a term that’s likely to be bandied about, he said.
And he added there may be something to that.
“It depends how big the amount is,” he said.
“If you’re in the situation where you’re running a large deficit, you don’t want to introduce a provincial sales tax — they’ve already raised taxes (and) I don’t see any sentiment for cutting spending so the only way that deficit is going to get lower is if oil rebounds or you find a new revenue source.
“I think a carbon tax is a way around that.”
Source: Alberta's new climate change strategy could include new fuel, heating taxes, pol
........................
Only justice here is the Dippers will be having to pay up for their vote as well.
