Tuesday, Sept. 10, 2019

VANCOUVER, B.C.: British Columbia’s greenhouse gas emissions continue to rise while British Columbians pay the highest carbon tax in Canada.

Newly released B.C. government data shows that in 2017, the most recent data year, emissions were 64.4 million tonnes, up from 63.6 million tonnes in 2016. Emissions in B.C. have gone up 2.4 per cent over the last three years and increased five of the last seven years.

“Politicians tell us that we are paying the carbon tax because it will reduce emissions, but the B.C. government’s own documents prove that is not happening,” said Kris Sims, B.C. Director of the Canadian Taxpayers Federation. “What is the point of paying an ever increasing carbon tax when it doesn’t work? All this tax is doing is filling up government coffers while everyday people are having trouble affording the cost of fuel to get to work.”

At $40 dollars a tonne, B.C. has the highest carbon tax in Canada and it is set to rise to $50 per tonne in two years. The B.C. carbon tax adds 8.9 cents per litre of gasoline,10.2 cents per litre of diesel and 7.6 cents per cubic meter of natural gas.

In 2018, the provincial government took in $1.7 billion from B.C. taxpayers with the carbon tax and it’s planning on taking $2.2 billion from taxpayers by the year 2021.

“When B.C. politicians first created the carbon tax back in 2008, they said it would: be revenue neutral, stop at $30 per tonne and reduce emissions. None of that is true today, so, why are we doing this?” said Sims. “Taxpayers across the country should be warned: B.C.’s carbon tax is being used as a template for the rest of Canada, but all it does is cost people more money without reducing emissions.”

To sign the petition to lower the taxes on gasoline click HERE.

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