Condemning the carbon tax

April 18, 2019 · 0 Comments

Written by BRIAN LOCKHART

Yes, another tax.

This time it’s the carbon tax which raised the price of a litre of gas five cents this month, and will raise it by approximately 11 cents by 2020.

Yes, we all know we need even more of our hard heard money turned over to the government.

Lets check back in five years and see all the good this carbon tax has done. Except you won’t see any good because that money will be dropped into a general revenue fund and frittered away on more government studies and ridiculous payouts.

I’ve heard the self proclaimed ‘environmentalists’ who support this tax saying it will ‘reduce our carbon emissions’ or ‘carbon footprint.’

And yet those same people still drive to Mississauga to report to their job every morning and their cars still spit out the same emissions. If you are that concerned about the environment and the horrendous damage carbon is causing to the world, wouldn’t it make perfect sense to get a job closer to home so your SUV doesn’t pollute the atmosphere as much?

Well, no, they stop short at that because carbon emissions don’t matter as much as the salary they make by commuting every day.

That attitude reminds me of a famous environmental summit in recent years where big name Hollywood celebrities came together to condemn industry for polluting the atmosphere – yet the celebrities arrived at the environmental event in fuel guzzling private jets. A lot of people noticed that.

One thing is for sure, this carbon tax will cost you more for a lot of things.

All that food in your local grocery store doesn’t arrive by horse drawn carriage or wheel barrow. It is delivered by trucks.

Trucks don’t run on good intentions and clean air, and trucking companies aren’t going to eat the cost of increased fuel expenses because they like you and your family. The higher cost of fuel will translate to yet again, higher prices in the grocery store and anywhere else where goods are delivered by transport truck.

Household debt in this country is now at the highest levels in history and it’s not because as a nation we are frivolous spenders. Most people try to live within their means.

People are struggling because salaries have not kept up with inflation and more and more of your money is eaten away by increasing taxes that affect your bottom line.

Imagine you get a job paying $100 per day. Before you even leave work you give $15 to the government, leaving you with $85. Take off another $6 for CPP and EI, and you’ve got $79. Although the latter two deductions are not taxes.

You have to drive to work so you go to the gas station and put $60 of fuel into your car to get you to work for the week, which is a reasonable cost of a fill up these days.

Of that $60, around $28 is going to be in more taxes – both fuel and HST.

You decide to stop at McDonalds for something to eat on your way home. Yes, more tax on a hamburger and fries.

After your first day of work, of that $100, you’ve already given around half of your pay to the government.

Of course we are all obligated to pay taxes to ensure certain services are available.

However, taxing your citizens to death is not the solution to every problem.

More taxes mean people have less money to spend. With less money to spend, they won’t be visiting your retail store quite as much and the $1,000 they would have spent on a new refrigerator might now be paying that yearly gas tax so they can continue to drive to work and make a living – to pay more taxes.

We are at a point now where we are taxed on pretty much everything we do. You can’t even turn on a light bulb to read a book without the utility company recording it and adding HST to your hydro bill.

For a fun experiment, try recording the taxes you pay over the course of one month.

Start with the obvious – your income tax. Then record the tax on every purchase and every service.

Need your computer fixed? Add 13 per cent. Need a new car battery? Add 13 per cent. Your child needs new supplies for school? Add 13 per cent.

Then add those other taxes like property tax that you can’t avoid.

At the end of the month you will realize how little you make and why your VISA bill is going through the roof.

No Ottawa, we don’t need new taxes.