By the time this paper hits the newsstands Ontario consumers will be facing an increase in the amount they pay for carbon emissions from products they use. These increases have been cited as contributing a mere 0.1 percent of the “inflation” consumers have been hammered with since the pandemic disruptions in supply chains constrained supply.
The Official Opposition Conservatives, provincial premiers (seven, also of a different partisan bent than the federally governing Liberals) and a host of right-wing pundits have railed against the carbon tax—even as the evidence mounts that it is effective.
Simply put, everybody wants to save the world, nobody wants to pay for it.
The increase in the carbon tax is repeatedly assailed by opponents on the basis that it will see a 23 percent jump on April 1. But that isn’t a 23 percent jump in costs to the consumer, which one might assume given the vociferous and somewhat duplicitous stance of the tax’s opponents. The impact on the cost of gas will be around 3.3 cents a litre. That is a bump that would hardly be noticed in the usual swings that take place at the pump on any given weekend.
Nonetheless, we have not played witnessed to such political hysteria since the heady days of the hydro rate panic. Where did that go? Curious that. We are all still paying the piper on electricity costs (albeit the Ontario Conservatives have been paying us off a bit on each bill from the general levy), but the vociferous outcries are not to be heard.
The simple fact of the matter is that we, the public, are being played—again.
The carbon tax is not a pleasant thing. It does, and will, cost each and every one of us more at the checkout counter—but for the vast majority of Canadians, the carbon tax rebates outweigh that cost.
But it is an easy target; it plays well against the current inflationary challenges we are all facing and provides a great political wedge. And what politician doesn’t like an easy target?
But what is the alternative?
With a world focussed on the existential threat of climate change (existential means a threat to humanity’s very existence by the way) it is only a matter of time before those countries that are pulling their weight will look askance at those who are not—and tariffs will not be far behind.
There are those who claim Canada’s trees already make us carbon neutral. That’s a mug’s game. Humanity needs to reduce the amount of carbon we send up into the atmosphere if we are to maintain the Earth’s environment one in which our species can thrive and survive.
As such, humanity (and that includes Canadians, Ontarians and, yes Manitouliners) must set aside the hysteria, don our big people’s pants and get on with the business of preserving our air, water, earth and climate so that they will be here for the next seven generations to enjoy.
It will cost us. But so far, those costs seem pretty minimal given the potential gain. It is long past time for those who oppose the carbon tax to stop stocking needless hysteria and to bring forward their alternative solutions, and some evidence that those solutions will work.
