North Cowichan – After doing a little searching I happened upon http://climatechange.procon. org/#background showing both sides of the coin and all I see are world governments spending tax dollars proclaiming solutions that never seem to amount to anything other than more taxation and regulation.
Locally, we have governments at two levels who believe they have the answer. The B.C. government has the carbon tax and North Cowichan has the Climate Action Energy Plan.
The province charges .07/litre on gas and the revenue goes into tax reductions including:
income tax credits for low income individuals
lowering the first two personal income tax rates by five per cent
providing northern and rural homeowners a benefit of up to $200 annually
lowering business taxes North Cowichan gave us the Climate Action Energy Plan, a .5 per cent tax increase. If I understand the plan correctly, this fund helps buy capital items to replace energy consuming items such as fuel dependent cars with electric cars etc. So, in essence, instead of taking money from an existing budget that was already in place, they added another tax and rather large capital work plan under the “climate change” moniker. From 1998-2009 the U.S. government spent $99 billion for work related to climate change and yet they still fail to meet their goals in terms of C02 reductions. Regardless of which side of the coin you’re on, when it comes to the climate change question, one thing is for certain. If you follow the money, it will always lead to a government body who believes every good solution involves new taxes and a healthy dose of social engineering.
Rob Saare
North Cowichan
