Taxing carbon and Canadians

Dear Editor,

Friends of the Earth-Canada is so kind. They propose a carbon tax on industry and - for the sake of fairness - provide one for Canadian consumers too. (“Carbon tax vital to green plan”, 07/01/26)

Perhaps FOE doesn’t realize the carbon tax buck stops not at industry, but with consumers. Industry will have no choice but to pass along the cost of the tax plus an appropriate markup to cover administrative overhead.

So! What will this carbon tax cost us initially? As one who monitors and discloses family greenhouse gas emissions, I guess it is my civic duty to provide an evaluation. Our records indicate our initial additional expense for the proposed tax on fuel and electricity would be about $1600 per year.

I suppose that is a rather modest expenditure to save the planet from greenhouse gas emissions. However a tax of that magnitude will have little effect. It would need to be escalated greatly as FOE acknowledges. We need to be very sure the planet needs saving before we go along with schemes like this.

Yours truly,

Duane Pendergast

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