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Campbell remains resolute on carbon tax |
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Written by MARK NIELSEN
Citizen staff
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Friday, 09 May 2008 |
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PREMIER GORDON CAMPBELL
"We're not planning to change the carbon tax, we're expecting it to come in on July the first," he said during a scrum with the media following a speech to the NCMA in which he emphasized the economic benefits that will come with getting a jump on battling climate change.
"There's no one in the province that won't be ahead of the game at the end of this year as a result of the actions we've taken," Campbell said.
Campbell made no direct reference to the carbon tax in his speech to the NCMA, but he said climate change has created opportunities "and most of those opportunities are right here in the north of British Columbia."
Campbell painted a future in which the province's forest provide "cellulosic" ethanol as opposed to "feedstock" ethanol, which has been a source of controversy with recent hikes to food prices.
"It's going to take some research, it's going to take some work, it's going to take some vision, but I believe we can become a major, major centre of cellulosic ethanol research and production and adaptability to the existing transportation systems," he said.
A further incentive, said Campbell, is the Lieberman-Warner bill currently making its way through U.S. Congress that will put in place a cap-and-trade system.
"The cap-and-trade system is going to be, I think, in some ways a way of restricting trade to the United States," he said. "Here's the choice we have: We can act on it now or we can wait until they start to restrict the flow of our goods and our services south of the border.
"I think we should act now. I think as we get ahead of it, we will build economic opportunity, we will build economic opportunity for the entire province of British Columbia and much of that opportunity will rest right here in northern British Columbia.
"But we're all going to have to change to meet those goals and objectives."
The carbon tax, effective July 1, will be phased in over five years, starting at a rate based on $10 per tonne of carbon emissions and rising $5 a year to $30 per tonne by 2012.
The tax works out to an extra 2.4 cents on a litre of gasoline, rising to 7.24 cents per litre of gasoline by 2012. The carbon tax on diesel and home heating oil will start at 2.7 cents per litre and increase to 8.2 cents per litre over the same five-year period.
Each taxpayer will receive a $100 cheque to offset the money they lost to the levy. As well, the bottom two personal income tax rates will be cut by two per cent in 2008 and five per cent in 2009 on the first $70,000 in earnings.
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Last Updated ( Friday, 09 May 2008 )
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