To better understand the magnitude of the Pacific Carbon Trust’s drain on taxpayers, classrooms and operating rooms, I’ve done some number crunching.
Universities and colleges in B.C. spent $4,457,796 ($3,980,175 plus HST) on carbon credits in 2011.
Here’s what the Health Authorities spent on carbon credits in 2011 (Total cost to all health care providers: $6,481,216—that’s $5,786,800 plus HST):
Lots of detail at the link.
And the result is that the schools and hospitals, etc., don’t have the money they need to retrofit the buildings to be more energy-efficient because they’ve had to pay these exorbitant taxes for ‘wasting’ energy; not to mention using the funds to actually teach pupils or care for patients. Supremely stupid.
what’s a few people dying as long as Gaia is appeased.
The gods must be satisfied or else they will become angry and kill more polar bears.
Great analysis. The carbon tax is the biggest scam going on in BC and to this day I remain in shock that it was the Liberals who brought it in, and who then refused to withdraw it even though they had the power to do so.
And they wonder why their support is evaporating like gasoline on a hot day.
Un-freaking-believable that people still fall for this horse shyte.
Those stats literally make me sick to my stomach. What a completely moronic concept this whole idea of carbon credits is.
Note to Chrispy Clark. I don’t think you are smart enough to take advantage of this, but if you want even a small chance at beating the Dippers, CUT THE DAMN CARBON CRAP.
The Liberals will burn their own houses down; rather than admit to the monumental stupidity of carbon taxes.
Carbon Taxes = People Killer + Economy Killer
They can make a new movie: “Death by Carbon”.
Cheers
Hans Rupprecht, Commander in Chief
1st Saint Nicolaas Army
Army Group “True North”
Following up on the news that the American Enterprise Institute hosted a secret meeting with liberal groups to try to build GOP support for a carbon tax, the conservative Heartland Institute has issued a release stating “strong objections to such a plan.”
In the statement, Heartland President Joseph Bast said:
The idea of a tax swap – a carbon tax in exchange for a cut in capital gains, for example – is the Holy Grail of many economists. Tax a ‘negative externality’ instead of investment, and everyone wins. Even I agree with that thinking. The problems are:
(a) Carbon dioxide is not a negative externality, it is a measure of energy use, and energy – as Julian Simon and others have pointed out – is the ‘master resource,’ the single most important input into our economy, the source of prosperity, innovation, and opportunity. Taxing CO2 emissions is WORSE, not better, than taxing capital gains
washingtonexaminer.com/heartland-institute-slams-aei-over-carbon-tax-meeting/article/2502121
This is why when the teachers were striking and bitching about getting nothing again I was smiling ear to ear. They brought it on themselves by brain washing kids with the eco-tard agenda. Enjoy those sweater days eco-tards!
Anyone want to bet that this story doesn’t hit the MSM within the next…year?
(or at least not until SDA gets the results!!!)
I hope but do not expect that this story gets wide play. The costs of fighting a nonexistent phenomenon
(AGW) are considerable; the federal government says that overall, Canadian compliance with emission controls is increasing: AT WHAT COST?
Carbon credits are a wonderful means of transferring money to the ultra-rich from those who are not.
The first time GWB was elected we witnessed the nonsense of hanging chads in Florida, where Dems only wanted to recount one county, which they knew was Democrat friendly. When their attempt to steal the presidential election failed, they went nuts, demonstrated by faker-in-chief Michael Moore’s ridiculous fake election, fake president rant at the Academy Awards.
This may seem OT but it is not. Similarly, the Warmists only want to examine post 1940s data, when CO2 levels and temperatures both rose – note Hansen’s statistical “study” where he examines weather anomilies since 1950 only. Then they refuse to consider any other causation, like the sun, other than human inputs and then proclaim they have proof for AGW.
Nothing, in any time frame, or any other possible reason for warming, other than AGW causes is considered and amazingly the conclusion is evil (Western) industrialization. When their studies and conclusions are shown to be the faulty junk science they are – apologists look for every flaw in the skeptic argument. Too bad they don’t do the same for Hansen’s and others’ ridiculous and fraudulent conclusions.
What a joke. A science (maybe) in its infancy, climatology, assigns itself the rigour and precision of hard sciences when they are nowhere near that.
Nobody is falling for this scam anymore. Pardon me if I offend anyone’s sensibilities but Jesus said that we will know the false prophets by their fruits. What are the “fruits” of the AGW movement – not reducing or eliminating pollution, not mitigating climate effects – no, they are simply after tax dollars and the power that accompanies them. The most egregious example is carbon taxes on, for example, gas. Apparently this will change behaviour – in a pig’s eye. Sorry, Mr Smith still drives his car/truck to Washington instead of taking the bus. The carbon taxes collected from him go to general revenues. Can anyone give a single example of carbon taxes actually used for the environment – to mitigate pollution (in China and India, for example) or develop effective energy technologies? There must be at least one – right?
Maybe not. The fruit of the false AGW prophets is watermelon. Beware the use of this and other false narratives in the upcoming US election.
Note how the federal government reaps a “tax” of this stupidity through the HST. Tax on tax on tax.
Note how the federal government reaps a “tax” of this stupidity through the HST. Tax on tax on tax.
It’s just another “tool” to beat the taxpayer over the head on ie: less money for unionized government wages if a chunk is going to CO2 crap.
At what point do BC voters wake up?
What is even more mind-boggling is the fact that in the next election they will likely replace the already very lefty Liberals with even more-lefty NDPs. I entirely lost faith in independent thinking by the electorate anywhere.
BC voters continue their merry way towards self-destruction. When it reaches California level, don’t come cap in hand to Alberta or Saskatchewan – the only two “have” provinces in the confederation. AB and SK may have a very good case for separation…
Pacific Carbon Trust eh? How do I buy shares in that? Talk about money for nuthin’!
So the money goes from the taxpayers (via income, consumption and property tax) to the government for education and health. The government then siphons millions from education and health budgets (plus HST, of course) and gives it to private corporations to fund carbon reduction schemes. Health and education suffer, middle-class taxes go up and billion dollar corporations laugh all the way to the bank. The politicians responsible for this then whine about getting their “fair share” from the rich and demand bigger federal transfer payments.
How much are these companies donating to political parties and lobbying for bigger handouts? Corporate welfare/cronyism always produces corruption.
Why aren’t education and health services exempt? After all, shouldn’t the real value of wellness and learning trump the purely speculative problems of C-AGW.
It took the Catholic church about 1500 years to become sufficiently corrupt to hit on the idea of selling indulgences to raise funds — the gaia worshippers: less than 10.
Taxing nothing is every politicians wet dream. Other provincial politicians who came too late to get in on this scam can only look on with envy at the stupidity of the BC electorate. Adding a HST tax on the nothing tax is just more icing on the cake and Harper is in no rush to kill this cash cow. The inmates are still running the asylum and the probability of the NDP being the next BC government shows there is little hope that sanity will prevail. Some of us must feel like we are diagonally parked in a parallel universe. I do.
“Note how the federal government reaps a “tax” of this stupidity through the HST. Tax on tax on tax.”
“and Harper is in no rush to kill this cash cow”
What is this Harper HST you speak of?
When was it introduced?
If I’m not mistaken, didn’t BC voters force the BC Liberals to rescind the BC HST beast?
Why and how is it Harpers fault provincial premiers want to tax their constituants back into the stone age?
Wasn’t it Progressive Mulroney who foisted the ..GST.. on Canadians, and didn’t Liberal Chretien get elected on the promise to “axe the tax”…
Was it NOT Harper who reduced Mulroneys GST to 5%
Just curious ..or have I missed something?
@ William in Ajax at August 9, 2012 4:34 PM
No one said it’s Harpers fault. Just that he is in no hurry to get rid of it. The HST in BC will be in place until 2013.
I hear you peterj …but the Cretin had 13 years to “kill this cash cow”, for crying out loud Harper has only had his (majority) for a year.
It’s up to us, the Harper supporters to at least ask him to consider killing this “cash cow”…
I haven’t heard of any recent request from Conservatives proposing that, maybe we should!
Sound reasonable?
Pay attention kids ’cause The Canadian Council of Chief Executives is currently lobbying for a carbon tax…do ya think they can get anyone’s ear in Ottawa? ps there are several frauds of equal magnitude to the carbon scam that predate the internet, it’s just that they are accepted wisdom, although equally bogus. As for BC, I moved here from rider land 20 years ago and the mind set in this province is scary stupid/lefty/green (or worse). The criminals who have been raping the province for the past decade are actually a better choice than the only plausible alternative and anyone who thinks John Cummins is a viable option hasn’t met him.
peterj @ 3:49 – the HST is a ‘harmonized’ sales tax. The GST was a replacement for the ‘hidden’ manufacturer’s sales tax (taxes on new purchases prior to GST: Brian/Crechin). The Feds paid Gordon Campbell cash for harmonizing Fed/Provincial taxes (B.C. agreed to send their share of the provincial consumer tax to the Feds). People should be asking the Liberals in B.C. where that big wad of cash went. The Fed Gumnet has no money except tax money that they beggar from independent producers/consumers and landowners (as do all other layers of gument and the public servants who work for the beggars and are slotted some $$ by the same patrons ).
Income tax is not mandated anywhere in the Legislation of Canada – it is a ‘war measure’ amendment from 1914 – income tax, like the GST, has stuck around so long that people believe it is written on the books somewhere as part of the BNA Act.
GST, by it’s very nature, as a ‘replacement’ for the Manufacturer’s Tax; does not apply to anything second hand (cars, buildings, clothes, etc) because the tax was paid when the items were new! All second hand sales should have that GST tax transferred back to the individual who paid the tax when the item was purchased. A service is not ‘manufactured’, that part of the GST is/was blatant ‘slush fund fraud’ IMO.
peterj – B.C. was once debt free – the people in B.C. voted in a Dipper in 1973 because the baby boomers wanted cheap car insurance (ICBC) and better welfare (Unemployment Insurance). That ‘promise’ broke the province and now it is a ‘basket case’ just like it’s clone, California. Same goes for the Yukon Territory and now Alberta. The east (except NFLD) has been a $$ drain for so long that it does not bear mention in this post, IMO.
@ William
Reasonable, yes but I can’t see it happening and even if it did it would be replaced by some other source of easy money, like user fees. Provinces that accepted it had huge incentives offered, businesses like it and it did streamline the taxation process. Where they screwed up is in eliminating many of the tax exemptions that peed off the middle class. Also it was a “in your face” tax that showed how you were getting screwed with every transaction. If it had remained hidden and built into the price, like the old manufacturing tax it would not created such a stir. BC was particularly angry as it was not part of Campbells election platform and was shoved down their throats right after he won the election. This tax is here to stay and the best we can hope for is perhaps a percentage drop promise at election time. They need the money to keep the social programs and bloated governments growing and will not lower or get rid of any cash cows. Harper (in my opinion) is the best PM we have had in many decades but is just as hungry for taxes as any of them. The HST is here to stay.
So tens of millions of dollars have been siphoned from the BC economy and has gone…where? To accomplish…what? Absolute stupidity.
Jema54
Missed your post. Agree completely.
Jema54
Missed your post. Agree completely.
@ jema54
Should add that the war measure ammendment implemented in 1917 had no expiry and is what we have in place now. That “temporary” tax would stand up to a court challenge even today.
http://www.duhaime.org/LawMuseum/canadianlegalhistory/lawarticle-168/1917-the-birth-of-income-tax.aspx
Lots of pockets are being padded.
This is what happens when society goes Pagan. Brains go out the window for Con artist hysteria. If you don’t believe in anything than eventually your not inoculate against the sleaze merchants.
You become a sucker to every public fad that comes along.
Peterj …please, stop calling the federal GST ..(HST), you’re confusing the issue.
When a province (merges) their provincial sales tax with the Federal GST, the new tax is then called HST ..in that province.
Alberta doesn’t have a HST, but they do have a GST.
Also you may be right about the GST never going away, but I suspect if we demanded Harper get rid of the tax on a tax on a tax on gasoline, he would be willing to consider it, he seems very practical to me, all we have to do is ask.
I agree, Harper is the best PM this country has ever had, lets put the question to him and see if he will live up to that best PM ever moniker.
I suspect he will.
As for all our politicians needing (MORE) tax revenue, Canada is looking at a $260 billion increase in investment in our resources over the next 20-30 years, Harper knows this and that fact may make a tax on a tax on a tax on gasoline redundant in Harpers eyes.
I wonder if it is possible for the public to sue the agencies that are paying out money in the carbon trading scam…………………….
Remember too that the GST wasn’t a tax in addition to all other taxes. There were many other taxes axed when it was brought in.
Let there be no doubt that Harper and the Ottawa bureaucracy was complicit in BC’s HST. They put up the bribe money that was supposed to make it palatable, and promised Gordo a cushy retirement job. In return, Ottawa reaped a profit of hundreds of millions on their “investment”. Then the referendum slapped some reality into the equation, but not before Gordo collected on his golden parachute, and the people of BC found themselves screwed again, as Ottawa had to be “repaid”, and the tax that magically appeared in a matter of weeks suddenly takes eighteen months to reverse.
But I digress. What I really want to know is how can I cash in on the fact that I have forty or fifty healthy big trees on my property that are storing away at least two tonnes of carbon every year. That’s fifty bucks somebody owes ME!
@ William in Ajax
OK , last kick at this can. Here’s the reason you will not see the relief in any tax.
http://www.debtclock.ca/
And how much was the CO2 in the air reduced by that spending?
How much CO2 was prevented from being emitted for that price?
How much was the global temperature reduced for all that effort?
Same answer for all three – zero.
What I noticed in a random sample of BC school CO2 taxes was attempts to reduce CO2. I suggest that the schools could attain very large CO2 reductions through simple programs of forbidding teachers and school administrators to breathe. When the inevitable cessation of physiologic functions occurs following a sufficiently long period of wrapping a CO2 catchment device about the CO2 emitters head, then the CO2 emitter can be placed into a metal box and buried giving one even more CO2 credits.
Considering the high cost of maintaining this class of CO2 emitters, one would realize massive property tax savings immediately. Given that public school was a major interruption in my education, I expect that the scholastic achievement level of BC students would rise rapidly after they no longer had exposure to a group of individuals whose primary goal is political indoctrination.
All one has to do to get this idea accepted is to reframe it into the appropriate Gaia-friendly paradigm given that Gaia worship is the official BC religion.
I look forward to such CO2 emission techniques being applied next to the BC political class.
Oops, hit post too fast. Last sentence should read:
I look forward to such CO2 emission reduction techniques being applied next to the BC political class.
What we add or subtract to CO2 changes nothing as far as climate is concerned. To question the hype, just follow the money.
http://co2insanity.com/2011/12/15/eight-questions-to-kill-the-kyoto-climate-protocol-in-2012/
Its the Sun, son.
Just say no to solar warming denial.
@ Loki at August 9, 2012 10:39 PM
Love it and the best idea yet.