Image: CFJC Today

By Dylana Kneeshaw

CARBON TAX EXEMPTIONS

Concerns around potential for further carbon tax exemptions undermining climate policy

Nov 3, 2023 | 6:00 PM

KAMLOOPS — With exemptions made to the federal carbon tax and BC’s official opposition proposing to scale back the provincial carbon tax and remove the fuel tax, economists say it could lead to more changes to carbon pricing.

Joel Wood is an environmental economics professor at Thompson Rivers University, and says the temporary exemption of home heating oil from the federal carbon tax likely won’t make a difference for central and western Canada.

“The major concern about the exemption is that it’s going to lead to this cascading effect of additional exemptions,” explains Wood, “basically undermining the Liberal Party’s signature climate policy of ensuring a universal carbon price across the country.”

Wood says the point of the universal price is to signal to emitters that carbon emissions have a cost, and they need to find a way to reduce their output. But it’s still too early to say whether the policy is having the intended environmental and financial outcome on a national scale.

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“It’s still at a relatively low level, at a rate similar to gasoline taxes in most of British Columbia — not in Metro Vancouver where the gasoline taxes are much higher than the carbon tax. It’s a bit too early to say because the plan is to continue to increase it to 2030 when we try to meet our emission reduction targets.”