Barry Penner, chair of the Energy Futures Initiative, at a waste-to-energy plant in Copenhagen this month
Eight years ago, Mark Jaccard, a sustainable energy economist at Simon Fraser University, co-authored a paper that warned of the “severe political consequences” that would be faced by a federal government that chose to rely exclusively or primarily on carbon taxes to fuel a climate action strategy.
To achieve federal emissions targets largely on its own, a national carbon tax would need to start at $30 per tonne of carbon dioxide emissions and increase to $200 per tonne by 2030, argued the 2016 paper titled, Is Win-Win Possible?
“It is highly unlikely that our political leaders will implement such a price, given the severe political consequences,” the paper said.
But Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s government did implement a national carbon tax as a main policy tool. And now, it is facing the political consequences of that choice.
Recent polling suggests that, while British Columbians support climate action policies, that support decreases the more that those policies cost them.
According to Research Co., 70 per cent of British Columbians say they support the federal government’s net-zero ambitions, but that level of support drops to just 49 per cent if average energy costs increase by 20 per cent. Support for federal net-zero policies drops to just 40 per cent if energy costs were to rise by 30 per cent.
The federal carbon tax, which started in 2019 at $20 per tonne of emissions, now sits at a minimum of $80 per tonne. It is scheduled to rise by more than 160 per cent to reach $170 per tonne by 2030.
On April 1, the carbon tax in B.C. jumped from $65 per tonne of carbon dioxide to $80 per tonne, bringing the carbon tax paid on gasoline to about $0.18 per litre.
Now that carbon tax increases are getting costly enough to have their intended effect, which is to deter people from using fossil fuels, inflation-fatigued Canadians are starting to revolt against them.
And as elections loom in B.C. in October, and next year in Ottawa, governing parties will need to re-evaluate carbon taxes or risk losing to politicians who are vowing to scrap them.
Federal Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre has made axing the federal carbon tax a main election promise, and in B.C., John Rustad, leader of the Conservative Party of BC, has likewise pledged to cancel B.C.’s carbon tax.
Kevin Falcon, meanwhile, said a BC United government would eliminate the provincial motor fuel tax on gasoline, and exempt home-heating fuels (natural gas and heating oil) from the carbon tax.
“In a democratic system like Canada, politicians can’t get too far ahead of their voters on issues,” said Barry Penner, chair of the Energy Futures Initiative, a new B.C. energy policy think-tank. “And if the voters decide that various forms of climate action are too expensive or not working properly, it poses a real threat that climate action policies will be unwound.”
Penner served as B.C.’s environment minister when the Gordon Campbell BC Liberal government brought in B.C.’s climate action plan, which included a historic, economy-wide, revenue-neutral carbon tax. It was originally set to rise by $5 per tonne until it hit $30 in 2012.
Today, B.C.’s carbon tax is accompanied by other climate-focused policies that carry their own costs—like the current B.C. government’s legislated zero-emissions vehicle mandate, which will require auto dealers to have electric or hydrogen fuel-cell cars and trucks account for 90 per cent of total light-duty vehicle sales by 2030, and 100 per cent by 2035.
An effective carbon tax should not require other “heavy-handed” policies, Penner said.
“If you were standing behind the carbon tax as a market mechanism, you would think that consumers will make that decision on their own without the heavy hand of government restricting their choices,” Penner said.
“The government’s now doing both—they’re ratcheting up the carbon tax and limiting your choice and prescribing what technology you must choose. I think, taken together, that helps contribute to a backlash from people who don’t like the government telling them what to do.
“I think governments have to be willing to adjust their timelines and possibly their policies because public support for climate action waxes and wanes.”
In an open letter to the federal government, hundreds of Canadian economists and academics defended Canada’s carbon tax and urged the Trudeau government to stick to its guns. The letter counters the argument that carbon taxes have not been effective in reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions.
“Since the federal carbon pricing took effect in 2019, Canada’s GHG emissions have fallen by almost eight per cent, although other policies were at work,” the letter states. Emissions must fall by between 32 per cent and 37 per cent by 2030.
The letter points to a Canadian Climate Institute (CIC) study that shows federal and provincial carbon pricing is expected to account for nearly half of Canada’s emissions reductions. Interestingly, though, most of the heavy lifting comes from industrial carbon pricing for heavy industry, and not from consumer carbon taxes on fuels.
Should the carbon tax be axed in Canada, it would still be possible to have effective climate action policies, Jaccard said, although he added that politicians vowing to “axe the tax” need to state what other policies they would implement.
Apart from saying that he would support nuclear power and carbon capture and storage, Poilievre hasn’t spelled out what other climate action policies a Conservative government might maintain or implement.
“If a politician promises to kill carbon taxes but won’t tell you what they’ll do instead, you should assume they are not climate-sincere,” Jaccard told BIV. “For example, innovation does not replace carbon pricing. Innovation is an outcome of policy, not a policy.”
When B.C. first introduced a carbon tax in 2008, it was revenue neutral, but revenue neutrality was eventually abandoned. Penner said he thinks there might be more support for carbon taxes if people saw other taxes—such as income taxes—go down by levels commensurate with carbon tax increases.
“I think it was a strategic error to diverge from revenue neutrality,” Jaccard said.
Ken Peacock, chief economist at the Business Council of British Columbia (BCBC), agrees.
“Definitely part of the problem is that they abandoned revenue neutrality,” he said. “If they were truly interested in reducing emissions, while continuing to foster investment and make business viable, they would provide some offsetting tax relief.”
It is worth noting that, if governments decide to rethink some of their climate action policies, one option might be to at least maintain carbon pricing for industry—the so-called large-emitter trading system. Alberta has had a variation of this in place since 2007. In B.C., it’s called an output-based pricing system.
In a recent paper, the CCI wrote that, of all the major climate action tools adopted by the federal government, large-emitter trading systems are the single most effective in terms of avoiding GHG emissions.
By 2030, the large-emitter trading system would account for 23 per cent to 39 per cent of avoided emissions from all federal policies implemented to date, the CCI report estimates. That compares to just eight per cent to nine per cent for the “fuel charge” paid by consumers purchasing gasoline and diesel.
The second-largest emissions reduction would come from an emissions cap on oil and gas production. Methane reduction regulations would account for the third-largest reduction.
“We know that the current package is working, and of the current package, large-emitter trading systems are by far and away the single most impactful policy,” said Ross Linden-Fraser, senior researcher for CCI.
“That makes that policy really important. If governments want to change the policies they are relying on, they’re going to need to come up with alternatives that fill any gap created by missing policies.”
Jaccard’s paper eight years ago suggested that Canada could implement effective climate action policies without having to rely on carbon taxes as a policy cornerstone.
“We must have at least one of these compulsory policies to achieve emissions effectiveness. But it does not have to be carbon pricing,” the paper argued.
Examples of compulsory federal policies include apartial zero-emission vehicle standard, a low-carbon fuel standard and sector-specific performance standards for industry that set declining percentage emissions intensities.
CHARLESTON, W.Va. (AP) — A linebacker at Division II West Virginia State was fatally shot during what the university said Thursday is being investigated by police as a home invasion.
The body of Jyilek Zyiare Harrington, 21, of Charlotte, North Carolina, was found inside an apartment Wednesday night in Charleston, police Lt. Tony Hazelett said in a statement.
Hazelett said several gunshots were fired during a disturbance in a hallway and inside the apartment. The statement said Harrington had multiple gunshot wounds and was pronounced dead at the scene. Police said they had no information on a possible suspect.
West Virginia State said counselors were available to students and faculty on campus.
“Our thoughts and prayers are with Jyilek’s family as they mourn the loss of this incredible young man,” West Virginia State President Ericke S. Cage said in a letter to students and faculty.
Harrington, a senior, had eight total tackles, including a sack, in a 27-24 win at Barton College last week.
“Jyilek truly embodied what it means to be a student-athlete and was a leader not only on campus but in the community,” West Virginia State Vice President of Intercollegiate Athletics Nate Burton said. “Jyilek was a young man that, during Christmas, would create a GoFundMe to help less fortunate families.”
Burton said donations to a fund established by the athletic department in Harrington’s memory will be distributed to an organization in Charlotte to continue his charity work.
West Virginia State’s home opener against Carson-Newman, originally scheduled for Thursday night, has been rescheduled to Friday, and a private vigil involving both teams was set for Thursday night. Harrington previously attended Carson-Newman, where he made seven tackles in six games last season. He began his college career at Division II Erskine College.
“Carson-Newman joins West Virginia State in mourning the untimely passing of former student-athlete Jyilek Harrington,” Carson-Newman Vice President of Athletics Matt Pope said in a statement. “The Harrington family and the Yellow Jackets’ campus community is in our prayers. News like this is sad to hear anytime, but today it feels worse with two teams who knew him coming together to play.”
DETROIT (AP) — Joe Schmidt, the Hall of Fame linebacker who helped the Detroit Lions win NFL championships in 1953 and 1957 and later coached the team, has died. He was 92.
The Lions said family informed the team Schmidt died Wednesday. A cause of death was not provided.
One of pro football’s first great middle linebackers, Schmidt played his entire NFL career with the Lions from 1953-65. An eight-time All-Pro, he was enshrined into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1973 and the college football version in 2000.
“Joe likes to say that at one point in his career, he was 6-3, but he had tackled so many fullbacks that it drove his neck into his shoulders and now he is 6-foot,” said the late Lions owner William Clay Ford, Schmidt’s presenter at his Hall of Fame induction in 1973. “At any rate, he was listed at 6-feet and as I say was marginal for that position. There are, however, qualities that certainly scouts or anybody who is drafting a ballplayer cannot measure.”
Born in Pittsburgh, Schmidt played college football in his hometown at Pitt, beginning his stint there as a fullback and guard before coach Len Casanova switched him to linebacker.
“Pitt provided me with the opportunity to do what I’ve wanted to do, and further myself through my athletic abilities,” Schmidt said. “Everything I have stemmed from that opportunity.”
Schmidt dealt with injuries throughout his college career and was drafted by the Lions in the seventh round in 1953. As defenses evolved in that era, Schmidt’s speed, savvy and tackling ability made him a valuable part of some of the franchise’s greatest teams.
Schmidt was elected to the Pro Bowl 10 straight years from 1955-64, and after his arrival, the Lions won the last two of their three NFL titles in the 1950s.
In a 1957 playoff game at San Francisco, the Lions trailed 27-7 in the third quarter before rallying to win 31-27. That was the NFL’s largest comeback in postseason history until Buffalo rallied from a 32-point deficit to beat Houston in 1993.
“We just decided to go after them, blitz them almost every down,” Schmidt recalled. “We had nothing to lose. When you’re up against it, you let both barrels fly.”
Schmidt became an assistant coach after wrapping up his career as a player. He was Detroit’s head coach from 1967-72, going 43-35-7.
Schmidt was part of the NFL’s All-Time Team revealed in 2019 to celebrate the league’s centennial season. Of course, he’d gone into the Hall of Fame 46 years earlier.
Not bad for an undersized seventh-round draft pick.
“It was a dream of mine to play football,” Schmidt told the Detroit Free Press in 2017. “I had so many people tell me that I was too small. That I couldn’t play. I had so many negative people say negative things about me … that it makes you feel good inside. I said, ‘OK, I’ll prove it to you.’”
VICTORIA – British Columbia’s Environment Assessment Office has fined Coastal GasLink Pipeline Ltd. $590,000 for “deficiencies” in the construction of its pipeline crossing the province.
The office says in a statement that 10 administrative penalties have been levied against the company for non-compliance with requirements of its environmental assessment certificate.
It says the fines come after problems with erosion and sediment control measures were identified by enforcement officers along the pipeline route across northern B.C. in April and May 2023.
The office says that the latest financial penalties reflect its escalation of enforcement due to repeated non-compliance of its requirements.
Four previous penalties have been issued for failing to control erosion and sediment valued at almost $800,000, while a fifth fine of $6,000 was handed out for providing false or misleading information.
The office says it prioritized its inspections along the 670-kilometre route by air and ground as a result of the continued concerns, leading to 59 warnings and 13 stop-work orders along the pipeline that has now been completed.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 12, 2024.
