• Emissions up 10 per cent in past three years
• B.C. has highest carbon tax in Canada
• Emissions up five of the last seven years

VANCOUVER: The Canadian Taxpayers Federation is calling on the government of British Columbia to cancel the carbon tax because it’s not working, according to the provincial government’s data.

“When this carbon tax was first hatched, we were told it would make emissions go down, but the opposite is happening, emissions are going up,” said Kris Sims, B.C. Director of the Canadian Taxpayers Federation. “The only thing this carbon tax is doing in B.C. is costing us all more to drive to work, drop our kids off at school and heat our homes. The carbon tax is nothing but a cash grab yanked out of the wallets of working people.”

Data recently posted to the British Columbia Government website shows the province’s emissions have gone up 10 per cent in the past three years, despite the highest carbon tax in Canada.

The B.C. government collected more than $1.4 billion through the provincial carbon tax in 2018.

The data, posted in a spreadsheet titled Provincial Inventory 1990-2018 shows B.C.’s emissions at 67.9 million tonnes in 2018. That’s up from 65.8 million tonnes in 2017 and up from 64.4 million tonnes in 2016. Emissions have gone up in five of the last seven years.

“When Premier John Horgan was in the opposition benches, he railed against the carbon tax, saying it would cost people too much to drive their cars and heat their homes,” said Sims. “Back then, NDP leader Carole James called the carbon tax ‘lipstick on a pig.’ They were right about the carbon tax back then and they should do the right thing now and axe the tax.”

At $40 per tonne, the B.C. carbon tax is the highest in Canada. It adds an extra 8.9 cents per litre of gasoline and an extra 10.2 cents per litre of diesel. The carbon tax is 7.6 cents per cubic metre of natural gas and often costs residential customers more than the actual fuel.

Over the past three years government data also shows emissions increasing by:

• 4 per cent for gasoline powered cars
• 19 per cent for gasoline powered pick-up trucks
• 46 per cent for light duty diesel trucks
• 51 per cent for railways

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