Whenever there is a hint of a new tax that may be levied in the future a lot of Canadians immediately get their backs up. They already feel like they are being taxed to death, and at some point collectively will say enough is enough . However, they may not have that same approach to the additional incentives that they would like to see added to their lifestyle. For example, a lot of us are intent on anything that is going to provide our environment with cleaner air, which trickles down to having to deal with car which involves greenhouse emissions.
We all want our government to do something about this, but anything that can or should be done is going to cost money. Are the tax payers ready to pay for this?
Currently B.C. and Quebec have carbon taxes in place. It may be that the governments would be keen on implementing carbon tax across the entire country. In order to do that, they have to sell the tax payers in general on the idea. It probably isn’t a topic they want to address in an election year.
For some tax payers they perceive these types of taxes as indirect taxes. They don’t view these types of taxes like they do income tax. These taxes are usually included in the price of the goods being sold like the GST/HST, although this is added onto our purchase as a separate entity, we have become so used to it that we just take it for granted as being the price we pay for something we want.
Carbon tax is applied to the purchase or use of fuels. It basically holds the users of these partially responsible for their contribution to green house gas emissions as a result of the specific fuel.
While the carbon tax may sound like doom and gloom it has been mandated that any revenues generated by its collection must be funnelled back to the tax payers by way of tax reduction.
When B.C. first introduced their carbon tax back in 2008 many speculated that it would hurt the government in office at the time, and the economy would suffer drastically. It appears that neither of these predictions came to pass.
There can be no avoiding the fact that we have got to get a handle on controlling carbon pollution. Our various government parties all seem to have different views on this. The Federal NDP favors a system in Quebec like a national cap and trade system. Justin Trudeau as leader of the Liberal party seems to think a proposed national carbon pricing plan would be the better way to go.
The Federal conservatives are indicating they are not in favor of a carbon tax and refer to it as a job killing tax, and it is said that the Prime Minister Stephen Harper indicated to the House of Commons that it was a crazy idea.
Before reaching your personal opinion as to whether a carbon tax would be acceptable to you, it would be a good idea to really look into how a carbon tax can play a positive role in the reduction of green house emissions.
