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Liberals defend green tax
Friday September 5 2008
By KAREN MARTIN-ROBBINS For The Banner
 
Though a federal election hasn’t been officialy called yet, the local Liberal Association was getting its message out last week.
Liberal candidate Rebecca Finch hosted a “Town Hall” meeting at the Orangeville Opera House to explain her party’s carbon tax plan.
Geoff Regan, Liberal MP for Halifax West and chair of the Liberal Caucus Committee on Environmental Sustainability, was the guest speaker.
“Stephen Harper called our plan ‘crazy’ but what’s really crazy is what’s happening to our environment,” said Regan. “What is crazy is not doing anything about it.”
Regan told a small crowd of approximately 22 people about The Green Shift, his party’s plan to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. The plan includes taxing greenhouse gas emitters coupled with reduced income taxes for middle and lower income households.  
Local Green party candidate, Ard Van Leeuwen, attended the meeting with a handful of supporters.
He questioned why the Liberal government hadn’t introduced the carbon tax plan before now.
“The Liberal government had three major governments and a green tax was not even discussed,” he said. “Even when (Stephane) Dion ran for leader of the party, he never brought up these plans. What has happened for this to come to the forefront?”
Finch said until recently, electors didn’t want a green tax.
“The idea of a carbon tax wouldn’t have flown with Canadians,” she said, noting that until now there hasn’t been international agreement on the causes and extent of climate change.
“We’ve seen a big change in Canadians attitudes towards climate change,” Regan added.
The cost of gasoline was forefront in many people’s minds that night.
Though the proposed carbon tax won’t apply to gasoline, but to a range of other fossil fuels such as diesel, jet fuel, natural gas and coal, companies that produce, refine and sell gasoline would be paying the new taxes on other fuels and would likely pass on those costs to consumers.
A lady, who did not identify herself but was sitting with supporters of the Green Party candidate, asked how the Liberals would prevent this from occurring.
Regan said companies can reduce the amount of tax they pay by reducing greenhouse gas emissions. He said the plan would not prevent companies from passing the cost onto consumers, however, “if their input costs go up, they will be looking for ways to reduce those costs, and that will include reducing their greenhouse gas emissions.”
A man suggested the Liberals could help people better understand the plan by making available figures showing what both the costs and savings will be to the average household.
Regan said the costs are difficult to calculate because there are so many factors that will go into it, but the website www.greenshift.ca has a mechanism to calculate how much individual income tax will be reduced.