Dion's Delivery Failure -- And No, I'm Not Talking Emails Here

As you can tell by the last article I posted up, I am in favor of a carbon tax to address the problems of climate change.

Now, this support of the BC plan does not mean I support the idea across the board.

Here we come to the point of this post, which is Stephane Dion's proposed federal carbon tax. It has been hammered from the start, much like the BC Liberals plan, from all sides. There is a reason why though, and it points towards a huge part of Dion's overall problem as Liberal leader.

Delivery.

The BC Liberals delivered their carbon tax with hard-set plans to offset the tax through tax cuts and dividend cheques. It hasn't quelled the furor, but when people actually get down to it, and look at their paystubs, hopefully the message finally hits home, and I don't have to convince person after person, some who I view as extremely bright, that the carbon tax is not akin to Satan rising up from the depths of Hell to swallow children.

That aside, Dion did not deliver his carbon tax in any way that would have been palatable. He introduced it flippantly, without a plan to show why it would be revenue neutral, and has been shooting himself in the foot with the details ever since.

There are some plans in place now, with hard prices per tonne of carbon ($10 in the first year, rising to $40 by the fourth year). There will be tax increases of around $15 billion on the highest fossil fuel consumers and carbon emitters, and it will be offset by around $15 billion in tax cuts, which trickle mostly to lower and middle income families who will feel most tightly squeezed by the new rules.

From CBC.ca :

• A 1.5 percentage point rate reduction for the lowest tax bracket (the first $37,885 of taxable income), to 13.5 per cent from 15.
• A one percentage point rate reduction for the second-lowest tax bracket ($37,885-$75,769), to 21 per cent from 22.
• A one percentage point rate reduction for the bracket between $75,769 and $123,184, to 25 per cent from 26.

There is also set to be a supplement of $1225 to low income families with kids under 18, by the fourth year, there will be a $350 child tax credit every year, and rural taxpayers would receive a $150 dividend cheque every year.

Dion predicts a family of four with an income of $60,000 / year will actually end up saving $1300 a year under these types of programs, even though their fuel costs will have risen.

Dion has also pledged that gas prices will not rise due to his new tax, which I personally find to be the most troubling part of the whole idea. Basically the justification for this belief is that oil and gas companies are already making tremendous profits off our backs, so they wouldn't translate the new tax over to the pump.

If I may, let me just say, bullshit. Absolute bullshit. The large oil and gas producers have already translated higher costs of oil down to us, at a rate higher than what the actual cost of a barrel of oil is rising. They have shown no remorse in raping everyone at the pump up until now, so where is the belief that they will magically stop? This tax is targeted to make their industry more expensive to run, and eventually either force them to diversify or die. If I'm in that position, I'm probably not going to be too peachy about going along and making the plan easier to swallow.

Gas prices will likely rise nationally, and Dion will have to account for it, or risk losing the whole argument up front.

The most major part, as with BC, in selling this kind of plan, is to make it 'revenue neutral'. Ah, there's that lovely buzzword again. He has pledged to make it so, and to have the Auditor General do a review every year to ensure that commitment continues to hold water.

Dion has said flat-out that within four years of his new system, costs for a regular, median household in Canada would rise $225-$250. Home heating costs will jump up to 8%. But as those increases will be offset by tax cuts, we're all good right? Wrong.

The most vocal critic of this plan has obviously been Stephen Harper, who is a much better communicator and politician than the BC carbon tax's main opponent, Carole James of the NDP. The fact that Harper can communicate his opposition, and basically Western Canada's opposition to Dion's plan so well may doom it from the start. Harper can deliver his ideas, Dion cannot.

I may not like Dion's style, but he seems to be rather ballsy when it comes to something he believes in. He has said flat-out this tax will hurt Saskatchewan and Alberta most (Alberta obviously, but Saskatchewan due to a high number of coal-fired power plants) and now he is touring there to sell / convince skeptics. If nothing else, this may push Dion's timid and tepid image to the back burner a bit.

The carbon tax. Yes, we need it. Yes, it will help us in the end, even though it may be painful now. Yes, BC, and Canada can be world leaders in green technology.

The problem is that it is long term. Our politics, mindsets, society, is all instant. Instant gratification, quick money and real-time results is what we thrive on, and it is not what the carbon tax gives us.

This is why, in the end, I am labeling Dion's ideas good, but his delivery of them as absolutely craptacular. The carbon tax is something you push through when already in power (see Gordon Campbell and the BC Liberals), not something to campaign upon. You campaign on those short-term, positive sounding ideas that sell you and your government to the people, then you start the wide-ranging, long term policies once in office.

This is fairly fundamental in our politics, but it is something Dion doesn't seem to grasp.

It's all about the message, where, when and how it is communicated.

In short, my friends, it is about the delivery, something Dion needs to learn if he has a hope in hell of selling his carbon tax, and the Liberals as a whole to Canada.

The Carbon Tax -- Don't Let Politically Motivated Opposition Spoil Our Path to Environmental Leadership

I've heard a lot tossed around the last few weeks about the carbon tax that Gordon Campbell and his BC Liberals crammed through the Legislature with minimal debate. Of course, I think that debate should have been allowed to continue, but probably for different reasons than one would assume.

I am fully and completely for the carbon tax.

There, I said it.

Everyone hates it, and I can understand why with the way the whole debate has been framed by the media and opponents, but I'm here to tell you why this is a good thing, and why it will make BC better, provide jobs, and stabilize our economy for decades.

Ok, bad news first. Yes, your gas prices will go up.....by a whopping 2.4 cents. Gas is already rising 5-7 cents a week as is, so realistically, the uproar over that portion of the carbon tax is a little overblown.

The main problem I can see is with heating. This is going to be more of a cost impact than anything seen at the pump. An average house in the suburbia around Vancouver is already paying far more than they should to heat their homes (because Gordon Campbell sold our public Gas utility to an American conglomerate, who has since doubled, and will soon triple the rates).

This is where what seems to be the most popular new term in Canadian politics comes into play: 'Revenue Neutral'.

Obviously the meaning of the term is that even though it is a tax increase, the government will not be collecting any new tax dollars off of it, as there will be cuts and dividends in other areas. It is a tax shift. You have already seen the $100 Carbon Tax dividend cheque in your mailbox if you're a BC'er, and there is more to come in the form of tax cuts.

We are still paying the same amount of money overall, and all the revenue collected from that extra 2.4 cents a litre is going to be directed towards developing alternative fuels, green technology, and breaking the province, the country, and maybe even beyond from our addiction to fossil fuels as a whole.

There is a bigger picture than just at the pump here people. We are doing our part to ensure that in a decade or two, there doesn't even need to be a pump at all.

Directing huge chunks of money towards these technologies means there will be plenty of new 'Green Collar' jobs created as well. Think of what we can do with all that money and people power put to good use.

Imagine if we can bridge the gap and actually become a world leader in green technology? We can sustain ourselves in the new world we are seeing the edges of today. The world is moving green, and if BC can be on the forefront of that, we can make ourselves, and Canada, into serious powerhouses.

The other day, I read that within 7 years, Mercedes-Benz will no longer be producing cars that run off of gasoline. 7 years! Unbelievable. This is the world we will be living in soon, and by taking this brave step, and being the first in North America to introduce a carbon tax, Gordon Campbell and his Liberals have taken BC down a potentially prosperous new path.

The NDP, provincially, and federally actually, now that Stephane Dion has introduced his federal carbon tax, are opposed, saying that everyone shouldn't be hit, and any taxes on carbon emissions should heavily target corporations and companies who are the worst offenders. I am more than fine with that, but it doesn't mean people driving SUVs and H2's and cars from 1973 shouldn't be hit as well. This is an 'across the board' problem that needs to be dealt with, you guessed it, across the board.

I find it odd that a party so focused on environmental initiatives as Jack Layton's would take a stand against something this progressive and dedicated to the movement away from fossil fuels, but with him, and with Carole James here provincially, the issue isn't really the carbon tax, it's that they both need some kind of uniting issue for their parties to draw in votes in quickly approaching elections.

Provincially, Carole James didn't have a leg to stand on, and did not have a single uniting issue, until now, with this carbon tax. Same goes for Jack. So while they will push on, decrying that the Liberals, provincially, and nationally, are hitting ordinary Canadians with a tax increase, their words will likely never ring so hollow. Both have betrayed their ideological beliefs for political posturing.

It is by no means the first or last time something like that will happen in politics, but for me personally, as someone that has voted NDP every time I have marked a ballot, it is especially disingenuous.

I just hope the larger picture is seen in this whole debate, because if the argument is going to be framed as just a jump in gas prices, the larger message, and the larger plan as a whole, will be lost, and 10-20 years from now, we'll be watching another country taking the mantle (and the revenue) as the place to go for green.