A prominent economist says that Canada’s carbon tax regime, introduced last year, has been a complete mess.
In a new paper published today by the Global Warming Policy Foundation, Robert Lyman explains how a theoretically sound approach to addressing CO2 emissions has turned out to be worse than critics have feared.
“Carbon pricing should be the most economically efficient way to deal with CO2 emissions”, says Lyman. “But the Canadian government has turned a simple idea into a dog’s breakfast.”
The problems encountered range from the use of rates that are unrelated to the cost of global warming, and varying widely across different provinces, and a staggering array of “complementary measures” that have made administration unnecessarily difficult.
Moreover, it is not even clear that the carbon tax regime is constitutional – three provinces have launched challenges in the courts, and two more are likely to follow suit.
Lyman says that the carbon tax regime in Canada, therefore, faces an uncertain future:
“The way carbon taxes have been dealt with in Canada is almost the opposite of how it should have been done. It has been complex, inefficient and damaging to the economic prospects of the country. The government is going to have to think again”.
Robert Lyman: Carbon Taxation: The Canadian Experience (PDF)
About the author
Robert Lyman is an economist with 35 years’ experience as an analyst, policy advisor, and senior manager in the Canadian federal government, primarily in the areas of energy, transportation, and environmental policy.
Contact
Robert Lyman
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Yes the World needs to expose the Left’s erroneous, anti-human Agenda and understand that in 2019, AGW actually stands for Al Gore’s Wrong! With oil/fossil fuels used by everyone, everywhere, for everything, including GREEN Energy, we simply must keep calm, emit on, emit responsibly to the best of current technology, just like World Class Regulated Canada does daily!
This will likely be a mute point . The Liberal apology tour that has pushed this carbon tax fraud will be facing the electorate in November .
Now Canada has the same lefties on the west coast and in the center of the universe Toronto so who knows they may pull it off and the planet will be
saved .
Alberta will separate before Quebec . Albertan’s have subsidized other provinces for decades with all that fossil fuel cash yet the Liberal government has done everything possible to screw Alberta ‘s exports of oil .
Of course the USA likes the price discount so they don’t want it going anywhere either .
From the article, “three provinces have launched challenges in the courts, and two more are likely to follow suit.” I am not authority on Canada. But I do know their federal government does not have the same degree of authority over the provinces as the US government does over the states. Canada’s federal tax on carbon dioxide emissions may not stand up in court.
Let’s all hope you are correct David! We need Reality to govern Federal Policies, not a failed Agenda!
“The way carbon taxes have been dealt with in Canada is almost the opposite of how it should have been done. It has been complex, inefficient and damaging…”
And to think that the Socialist Canadian government is a model of efficiency compared to the U.S. government.