In his letter to the editor last week, Conservative MP Ed Fast continued to sing his Party’s tired song that a national carbon tax will be bad for the Canadian economy, citing a parliamentary budget report that it could cost anywhere from $10 to $35 billion per year to the Canadian economy.
Although short on the assumptions upon which this estimate is based, the April 2018 Parliamentary Budget Report (PBO) opined that GDP might be $10 billion lower than that by 2022 with a levy on carbon. But it also came with the following caveat:
“Were provinces and territories to undertake more efficient revenue recycling, such as reducing corporate or personal income taxes, the impact of the carbon pricing levy on the Canadian economy would be significantly lower.”
This is an important distinction. Any national carbon tax will be tax neutral according to the Trudeau Liberals. There was also no mention in the PBO report about how using these revenues to discourage emissions producing practices, could be used to encourage low carbon: ones such as putting more electric vehicle on the road and installing electric vehicle chargers — both of which are already incentivized by the BC government thanks in part to our carbon tax introduced in 2008. These options have also helped boost technical know-how and economic growth.
Notably, the four provinces with carbon levies, B.C., Ontario, Quebec and more recently Alberta, had the fastest growing economies in the nation in 2017.
Why is this important? In the U.S. between 2015 and 2016, solar jobs grew 17 times faster than the overall economy in an industry that by 2017 employed more than a quarter million workers. Interestingly, the job of wind turbine technician is the fastest growing profession south of the border.
Compare this to a loss of 4.5 per cent of U.S. workers in the fossil fuel industry between 2012 and 2015.
Unfortunately, while the renewable energy industry is growing rapidly and providing many new jobs in many other nations, Canada is a laggard in this area. This means that as countries such as China, Germany, Norway and even the U.S. race to develop new, more efficient green technologies and practices, Canada will be a buyer rather than a seller in this space. This will cost us both high-paying jobs and economic growth.
A tax neutral carbon levy is a worthwhile way of channelling money away from generating emissions and into a greener, more energy efficient future while growing, not hurting economic growth, no matter what fossil fuel cheerleaders and new economy naysayers may try to tell you.
Matt Blackman
Founder – Squamish Alternative Energy Group
