OpEd - “Tax the AXE”!

By Barry Mitschke, RM of Lumsden

January 31, 2025

Key points from this story: (for lazy readers)

• Carbon tax encourages cleaner energy alternatives
• 73 carbon pricing instruments exist worldwide
• Canada's carbon pricing started in 2019
• 90% of collected money rebated to families
• Carbon pricing combats increasing climate change
• Axing carbon tax reinforces climate goal myths

What do I mean, when I spin that to be "Tax the AXE"? I will define that more precisely at the end of this column. But note: as long as I can remember, we've always had a tax on carbon found in fossil fuels: coal, oil, natural gas, methane, etc. to help pay for the cost of their extraction from planet Earth, and for their USE!

So, what about that "political hot potato" called "Carbon Tax", or rather "Carbon Pricing" as it should've been called from the get-go? Let's check some wisdom from 2024 and 2025.

April 14, 2024. "Simply put, it's designed to increase costs of burning polluting fossil fuels and encourage cleaner alternatives. It creates a financial incentive for people and businesses to pollute less. Rebates help keep household costs down." Further, "… there are 73 C-pricing instruments world-wide (use taxes, levies, emissions-trading) … price varies from $1 tonne C02 to $125 tonne … Canada started in 2019 at $20 tonne, now $80 tonne [about 3 cents per litre with each $20 rise] …90% of the money collected is rebated to families (hence the "Canada Carbon Rebate") … large industrial polluters pay the most … [in reality] my living costs are affected more by: volatile fossil fuel markets, oil company/corporations price gouging, supply chain bottle necks, extreme weather events …. Carbon pricing is one way to combat increasing climate change … most useful in a market system …" Canada's carbon pricing (a.k.a. "carbon tax") explained - David Suzuki Foundation . (Might have to "Control C, click"). Google: Science Matters.

As Dr. Suzuki has concisely reiterated recently: "Burning oil, gas and coal traps solar radiation under a blanket of emissions heating the planet at accelerating rates." So, Mother Earth has a fever that's increasing and causing more disastrous results more often with more intensity (fires, droughts, floods, hurricanes, etc.)!

January/February 2025. "Scrapping Canada's most effective climate policy will cost us a lot in the long run. … The tax is meant to motivate Canadians to save money by conserving energy and using renewable sources instead. … Axing the tax will reinforce the myth that we can meet our climate goals at no inconvenience to everyday Canadians. But road transportation and buildings account for 27 percent of Canada's carbon pollution. We are part of the problem. Carbon taxation is the most cost-effective and transparent climate policy we have. It spells out exactly what it's doing, what if costs and who is paying. The question is whether we want to listen." Kathryn Harrison, Professor of Political Science at UBC. Maclean's (Volume 138, #1) page 27.

So, what should we listen to? Let's get right down to Earth for a Saskatchewan citizen. Check some quarterly bank statements. What were your "Carbon Rebates" during 2023 and 2024? Examples for us were: on April 21, 2023 described as CANADA CAI (which meant?) for a $255.00 deposit; then July 14; then October 13: $765.00 total. January 15, 2024 was described as FED CLIMATE INC CAI for a $255.00 deposit; then May 15 as CDACARBONREBATE CCR for $282.00; then July 15; October 15: $1,101.00 total. (In 2024, the Government of Canada finally identified this nice deposit as "Carbon Rebate". Were 90% of Canadians getting this in their bank accounts since the Rebate started, not knowing what it was, nor questioning it?)

The Governments of Alberta (Premier Smith) and Saskatchewan (Premier Moe) (and ON & NB) challenged the right of Canada (Federal) to charge a "Carbon Tax"; the Supreme Court of Canada ruled that the Canada could legally do that! In protest, Moe refused to collect the tax (but my electricity bills still show the charge for the "Federal Carbon Tax", so what's happening? Has it been charged, but not sent to the Feds?). Has he tried to "lessen the effect" by giving us some rebates --- via SaskPower for electricity use, or via SaskEnergy for natural gas use. Checking our electricity bills for 2024, I see "Sask Electric Heat Relief", a credit: $55.72 for January-December. So, the 2024 Rebate score was: SK $55.72; Feds $1,101.00! Who should I vote for?

How can you "Axe the Tax"? Re transportation, with Big Auto. Engineers say that Internal Combustion Vehicles (ICEs) like cars, trucks, etc. are most efficient when driven 90kmph. I drive mostly on Highway #11 between Lumsden and Regina. Usually, I do drive 90kmph to save gas (and tax); sometimes 100kmph, or even the speed limit of 110kmph! Guess what? Many people "break the law" and drive over 110kmph; I estimate some speeds at 120kmph or 130kmph or??? (Three guesses for those vehicles who consistently "break the law"?) Driving over 90kmph, wastes gas, and so you pay more at the pump to fill up, hence more tax. Slow down: take a few more minutes to get to Regina, or wherever. Save costs; pay less tax, hence "Axe the Tax"!

Re your house and home. What about yours? To heat and run our home (appliances, lighting, gadgets, electric car), the Mitschke's use grid electricity, and active solar panels (generate more electricity than we use, 4 or 5 months May-September); don't use natural gas; supplement with passive solar, geothermal (Earth-sheltered; hope to install a heat pump), and/or use our old-wood cook stove on extremely cold winter days, or when the power is off for a long time.

Guess what the latest political SPIN is? Trudeau has resigned; Liberals are having a leadership race. Will the new leader/PM "Axe the Tax"? If so, there goes Poilievre's main slogan/mantra for winning an election. Stay posted.

So how did I introduce this column? Here are my simple explanations/definitions/SPIN.

"Tax" --- there are many types, including personal and corporate. Need focus on: billionaires; big corporations like Big Oil or Big Autos; subsidies received; "loss and damage" caused by extreme weather events accelerated by Greenhouse Gas Emissions (from burning fossil fuels mainly).

"AXE" --- A, refers to All-powerful entities mentioned above; X, refers to X-rated individuals and corporations, and non-renewable energy; E, refers mainly to Energy-sources like fossil fuels and their uses --- oil and its products (gasoline, diesel, lubricants, plastics, etc.), natural gas (includes methane), and coal.

If we "Tax the AXE" more, then you and I will pay less tax; and planet Earth's fever will stop rising, as Earth's ecosystems restore balance. We, the current generation, are the problem. How can we create a better world for our kids, our grandkids --- even seven generations into the future as the Indigenous people plead?

Inquiring …

1. Will Donald Trump increase "Taxing the AXE"? (Is this likely when he says: "Drill, baby, Drill"?)
2. Abraham Lincoln said: "of the people, for the people, by the people"! Bernie Saunders says Trump should say: "of the billionaires, for the billionaires, by the billionaires"? Where does that leave you or me? (Watch out; does MAGA really mean "Make America Greedy Always"? "Axe the tax"!)
3. Like he did in his first term, Trump will leave the 2015 Paris Accord/Agreement (Climate Change) signed by almost 98% of the world's 200 countries. Who will pick up the slack? China, the EU, believer billionaires like former mayor Bloomberg, others? What social, environmental, and economic (SEE) consequences will America suffer during 2025-2028 --- "Burn, baby, Burn!"? Canadians? The world?
4. How much have all of the 2024 extreme disasters (like Hurricane Helene and Milton, LA Wildfires, tornadoes, droughts, floods, etc.) cost the USA economy? Does Google even have an estimate yet? (Of course, those costs are usually stated in economic terms; hence, structural costs, not the psychological/mental costs to people's lives, nor the loss of habitat and other living things --- how many bears, or other animals, plants, invisible life forms die in one wildfire?