Opinion: Here are two arguments for keeping Canada’s carbon tax

Article content

I present two arguments for not axing the tax. First is that most Canadians are financially better off with the tax on carbon, believe it or not. And the second is to present information that most articles about the need to reduce fossil fuel use don’t present, the implication of putting less carbon in the atmosphere.

Why are most Canadians better off financially from having carbon pricing — the carbon tax? The Conservative Party would have you believe otherwise.

Article content

The Canadian Parliamentary Budget Office (PBO) explains that approximately 90 per cent of the revenue collected from the tax on fossil fuel is returned to Canadians in the form of rebates.

The PBO estimates that 80 per cent of Canadians get rebates that are more than they pay in carbon taxes when the purchase fossil fuel, primarily gas.

I suggest that after reading this, do your own calculations. If you have records of the rebates you have received, say in 2024 to date, and the quantity of gas you purchased at the pump, calculate what you have paid in the carbon tax.

For Saskatchewan, currently, it’s 17 cents per litre on gasoline, (21 cents a litre on diesel and 15 cents per cubic metre on natural gas).

Here are my calculations: to date I have received $819 in rebates in May, June and October. I estimated purchasing 1,688 litres of gasoline. I estimated driving slightly over 15,000 kms. At 17 cents per litre, that means I paid $287 in carbon tax.

Therefore, I was $532 better off with the carbon tax than without. Compare your own driving record to mine. And as the carbon tax is raised, most will be even better off, as the revenue from the tax will increase.

Article content

Article content

Why is there a potential disaster looming? It is because the earth is steadily warming, almost every year breaking a new record with severe implications.

Gwynne Dyer, in his most recent book, Intervention Earth, Life Saving Ideas from the World Climate Engineers, (2024) explores these implications and discusses potential solutions. This book is based on three years of interviews and studying the research of the world’s leading climatologists.

In 1800 near the start of the Industrial Revolution atmospheric CO2 was 280 parts per million. It is now in 2024 at 425 ppm. Climatologists have determined that when CO2 levels reach 450 ppm, at this point ” ‘‘runaway’ warming becomes possible.” (Dyer)

Thus two degree celsius is the ‘tipping point,’ which Dyer writes, triggers a “… self-reinforcing, self amplifying process that human beings cannot stop.” At the current rate of C02 increase, the earth will reach 450 ppm in fewer than 10 years.

I’m sorry to have to say this, but we all need to be scared, really scared, because the consequences are too horrific. Once 2.0 C is reached, temperatures will keep rising, thus leading to much higher global average temperatures.

Article content

The scientists have estimated it is at these temperatures that the world’s major sources of food, corn, wheat and rice will not pollinate, with resulting crop failure resulting in mass starvation

Because at these temperatures there are areas humans cannot live, triggering a mass exodus of people from the earth’s temperate zones northward. It’s hard to believe that there won’t be resistance to this. Dyer had speculated these conflicts in his book Climate Wars, back in 2010.

What can humanity do if emissions cannot be reduced to avoid reaching this 2.0C plus and the tipping point. The answer is some form of geo-engineering where the incoming sun’s radiation is blocked.

Originally most climatologists were horrified to even think about doing this, interfering with the earth’s climate in this way and not knowing the consequences. However, now they agree that there may be no choice but to do it. That will have to be left to another article.

Gary Storey is an agricultural economist and professor emeritus at the College of Agriculture and Bioresources at the University of Saskatchewan.

Article content

Share your views

The StarPhoenix welcomes opinion articles. Click here to find out what you need to know about how to write one that will increase the odds it will be published. Send submissions to [email protected] or [email protected].

Our websites are your destination for up-to-the-minute Saskatchewan news, so make sure to bookmark thestarphoenix.com and leaderpost.com. For Regina Leader-Post newsletters click here; for Saskatoon StarPhoenix newsletters click here

Article content