Barrhead-Morinville-Westlock MLA Glenn van Dijken is panning the newly introduced Carbon Tax Bill, saying it will punish rural residents.
Passed on Tuesday, June 7, at the Alberta Legislature, the contentious bill is one that opposition members, including van Dijken, voted against, and it comes into effect on January 1, 2017 — meaning increases to home-heating bills and at the gas pumps.
“We’re going to get hit from both sides with this new tax,” van Dijken said, adding the initial increase of $0.045, scheduled for January, is only the tip of the iceberg.
“I think what has to be recognized is that $0.045 is on top of a $0.10 cent federal excise tax and a $0.13 provincial fuel tax, along with 5 per cent tax applied to every transaction in the form of GST,” he said, adding the price will jump again by 6.7 cents in 2018.
Diesel fuel will increase even more, $0.0535 in January 2017, and $0.0803 in 2018.
van Dijken said his concern is that people will blame oil companies for the rate increase.
“People are so quick to blame the producers when the prices go up, but if you take a real good look at the breakdown of the numbers, as of Jan. 1, around a third of every dollar paid at the pumps is tax,” van Dijken said, adding the producer’s cut is around $0.67 cents on the dollar.
“One of the things we need to recognize with this carbon tax situation is that none of the money gleaned from it will be used to help our current operating deficits,” he said. “None of the $9 billion expected to be raised through this tax over the next five years is going into the general revenue, to offset the cost of health, transportation, education, or anything else. It’s going to end up being discretionary spending at the whim of the current government.”
Living in rural areas, van Dijken said, Albertans deal with adverse conditions all of the time and distances travelled tend to be greater.
“Rural Albertans do not have the same options of public transportation to get around as town residents do and as a result rural Albertans will now be paying more than their fair share as a consequence of this new legislation,” he said.
Back when the province introduced its fuel tax, van Dijken said, it was intended as a way to assist in road maintenance, but since then the government has kept increasing the tax while decreasing the amount of money used for that purpose.
“Instituting a carbon tax and putting a price on fuel to reduce consumption is essential to combating climate change, but it should not be done in a way that will harm the local economy,” he said, adding in his opinion, the provincial government is doing exactly the opposite.
“They aren’t reducing existing taxes and they’re introducing brand new ones. When B.C. introduced something similar, they did it right. Theirs is revenue neutral. Alberta on the other hand, is going to feel some pain with this,” he added.
The issue of climate change has to be addressed, van Dijken said, adding he did not think a new tax was the right way to do it.
“I believe they [provincial government] are pushing forward with their ideology, with no consideration for the Alberta economy, and I think this is a bad tax at a bad time,” van Dijken said.
Albertans are already hurting with the stagnant economy, he said, adding it does not make sense to put more stress on people.
“We’ve put forward quite a few amendments to this bill with regards to transparency and accountability, but there was no give on the government’s side to indicate they were willing to institute any of our ideas. It is very concerning and seems very much a power play.”
The government did not campaign on instituting a carbon tax and that is one of the reasons the opposition felt it was important the people should have their say, van Dijken said, adding an additional amendment to have this bill put to a referendum was put forward but the government declined the opportunity.
“Nobody was consulted on this and the people aren’t happy,” he said. “The government says the people want it, but wouldn’t let the public vote on it. Compared to our neighbours, we’re spending much more on basic necessities. I believe we have a management issue here in this province that needs to be addressed and nothing is going to change until it is.”
