Carbon tax criticism is misleading
What a great editorial in the Nov. 30 edition and the cartoon really ties in well.
With some politicians trying to make hay (or votes) out of the carbon tax issue, it is time for some hard facts and to clear up misinformation.
A lot has been made of the fact that some Atlantic Canadians are getting a break on carbon taxes on heating fuel. The issue was recently cleared up by an Alberta member of Parliament, who pointed out that “this tax relief is for all who use heating oil and about 11,000 northern Albertans and residents of the Northwest Territories also qualify for this benefit” because heating with oil is twice as expensive as using natural gas.
Read Also
Topsy-turvy precipitation this year challenges crop predictions
Rainfall can vary dramatically over a short distance. Precipitation maps can’t catch all the deviations, but they do provide a broad perspective.
It appears that many politicians are using the carbon tax issue to garner votes and get the population riled up about it without realizing the full implication of the purpose of this tax.
I have to admit I am biased because I benefited from this tax. I got a small grant to put solar panels on my shed roof. In 2017, I was unable to put up the number of panels I wanted because there was a restriction and only enough potential energy production for our own use was permitted. Apparently, the big power producers were afraid I would compete with their profitability.
The editorial and cartoon suggest that there could be more serious efforts to combat climate change than a carbon tax. I couldn’t agree more. Climate change is a serious issue and the historical drought of November should make this clear. Unless we want a disastrous future, some serious things have to be involved.
At present, we have a perfect example of how not to do it.
The City of Edmonton has promoters working on a “big air project”, which involves a huge ski jump for snow boarders. The snow is made at a ski hill, loaded onto trucks and brought to Commonwealth Stadium. There, it is unloaded and spread out with snow groomers and the high parts of the jump have the snow placed up there with a huge crane. Think of all the machinery involved, all of which is producing harmful emissions and this is for a few days of entertainment when it all has to be dismantled and cleaned up.
It used to be that the biggest priority for humanity was to have enough food, but now the biggest priority is entertainment. We don’t complain about this type of extravagance or hockey in the summertime, but that cow farting in the pasture is, apparently, the real problem.
With sustainability being a big push for agriculture, I hope urban folks realize that the world has much bigger problems that need much bigger efforts to sustain this planet and it might involve their favourite activities.
Horst Schreiber
Ohaton, Alta.
