It’s all economic pain with no environmental gain..
On Jan. 1, the NDP government will increase the NDP’s job-killing carbon tax by 50 per cent.
Under the carbon tax scheme, Albertans pay more for everything, from gasoline, to heat, to electricity, to virtually every consumer product that is transported by truck or train. In turn, the government parcels up a small portion of the revenue and hands it back to Albertans. The rest is spread out to friends of the government and other corporate welfare recipients, including several hailing from outside of the province, whose activities are dependent on taxpayers’ subsidies.
So, at the end of the day, what do you get out of this classic tax-and-spend scheme?
Not much, really. Thousands of job losses and business closures aside, since the NDP indicated its support for a carbon tax at least $34.8 billion in investment fled the oilsands. But, if you apply at the right time, you might get a rebate on an over-priced light bulb.
Is it any wonder that poll after poll shows two-thirds of Albertans remain opposed to the carbon tax?
Perhaps this is why the government felt it necessary to latch on to the concept of “social license.” By burdening Albertans with a carbon tax, the NDP claimed it would secure the so called ‘social licence’ required to export Alberta’s resources.
Yeah, that hasn’t happened.
Social license didn’t win approval of the Keystone XL pipeline in the United States; the project was only made possible by the election of a Republican president.
Implementing the carbon tax did not stop the federal Liberals from killing the Northern Gateway pipeline, nor from enacting a ban on tanker traffic along the North coast of British Columbia. Nor did social license appease former Montreal mayor Denis Coderre, a long-time federal Liberal, from opposing the Energy East pipeline or from publicly celebrating the death of the project.
As for the Premier’s recent speaking tour, I think it’s safe to say that the NDP’s ‘social licence’ argument isn’t convincing anyone. Social license means so little to her NDP counterparts that both BC Premier John Horgan and federal leader Jagmeet Singh continue to oppose the Trans Mountain pipeline.
So, with social license proven effectively worthless, why is it that you are being asked to pay 50 per cent more carbon tax starting Jan. 1?
Usually, when you pay more, you get more.
With the NDP’s job-killing carbon tax, you pay more and get less.
This a bad deal, and it’s only getting worse.
For more information, contact:
Constituency Office
117 Centre St. Sundre, AB T0M 1X0
Phone 403-638-5029
Twitter: @JasonNixonAB
Facebook: www.facebook.com/jason.j.nixon?fref=ts
E-mail: rimbey.rockymountainhouse.sundre@assembly.ab.ca