Maximilian Kniewasser, the director of the British Columbia Climate Policy Program for the Pembina Institute, Vancouver, British Columbia, in his letter to the editor in The Reflector on Jan. 31, cites economic growth figures for four Canadian provinces, suggesting that a carbon tax and economic growth can play well together, and therefore Washington state should adopt a carbon tax.
All taxes look good if someone else is paying them, but they usually trickle down to the consumer who may not be able to bear it. A study at the University of Calgary has estimated total carbon tax costs to range from $50 per tonne rate for 2022 ($40 in U.S. dollars).
The government agency Statistics Canada has said that the number of persons living below the poverty line will necessarily increase. The Ontario carbon tax has been described as the largest transfer of wealth from the poor and middle class to the super rich in Canadian history. The Canadian federal government does not like to share some of the other calculations.
Where do the tax payments go? Maybe to subsidize investors in idle wind farms. Maybe to rebates for well-off buyers of electric cars. Maybe to Mr. Kniewasser, or a climate change bureaucracy.
But will it affect the “climate challenge” described by Mr. Kniewasser? Maybe Australia offers a better model. After two years, they repealed their carbon tax because it cost a lot and did nothing.
