Angry in the Great White North

Now we are getting solid information on Liberal Party leader Stephane Dion's carbon tax.

The money collected by putting a new premium on energy will be returned to Canadians:

Revenue neutrality is the central pillar of the Liberal leader's complex plan, to be unveiled later this week, for putting a price on carbon.

Under the plan, the federal treasury would not keep a dime of the roughly $14 billion in revenue the proposed carbon tax would generate. Rather, the money would be shifted back to consumers in the form of offsetting cuts to personal income and corporate taxes.

So I'm going to pay $3000 in carbon tax and pay $3000 less in taxes?

Not so fast.  Apparently the money is going back to deserving Canadians:

To that end, Liberals say Dion's plan is aimed at helping wean Canadians off fossil fuels as painlessly as possible. It will include a host of tax measures -- from refundable tax credits to tax incentives and direct tax cuts -- that will be skewed heavily in favour of lower- and middle-income Canadians.

But the goal is to lower greenhouse gas emissions, right?  Even if I'm screwed by this new tax and see little in the way of tax cuts, I can take comfort in the fact that when the magic happens and Canada's planet-busting 2% contribution to global greenhouse gas emissions is cut to a 1% contribution, the tax will level off.  Perhaps even be relaxed?

I mean, if Canadians have switched to greener sources of energy, and emissions have dropped from a trickle to a dribble (in global terms), then why have the tax?  Why would Canadians revert to their polluting ways?  The carbon tax has accomplished its goal and can be retired, right?

Not so fast.  Apparently the carbon tax is being used to solve problems unrelated to greenhouse gas emissions:

Dion's previously announced proposals for reducing poverty by 30 per cent -- and child poverty by 50 per cent _ in five years will also be wrapped into the carbon tax plan. Those proposals include enriching the working income and child tax benefits, extending the child tax credit and raising the Guaranteed Income Supplement for the poorest seniors.

Right then.  So even if carbon gas emissions drop precipitously, the carbon tax will remain in place, or even be increased, if poverty levels remain too high.  Indeed, the effect of a carbon tax will be to raise the price of everything, so any anti-poverty program funded by the carbon tax will first have to spend money to undo the economic hardship inflicted on Canada's poor by the carbon tax.  After that the tax will have raise additional money to fund any number of government anti-poverty programs that Stephane Dion cares to dream up.

So perhaps when the details are revealed, Stephane Dion can enumerate all the problems that will be fixed by the carbon tax that are unrelated to the environment.  That'll give us an idea of how long we'll have to pay the carbon tax, long after the environmental issues no longer a concern.

Addendum: Garth Turner, the communications strategist, does what a communications strategist does best -- puts everyone back on track with the message:

"Every taxpayer will be better off. That's the Dion goal,'' said Liberal MP Garth Turner, who's been helping with the communications strategy for the plan.

Um, I thought the goal was to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.