The erroneous claims regarding British Columbia's carbon tax -- which has been repeatedly put forward as a prospective model for carbon pricing elsewhere, including the United States -- continue to roll out unimpeded.
Writing in the Toronto Sun, best described as a progressive outlet, Mark Cameron -- "Executive Director of Canadians for Clean Prosperity and a former policy director to [supposedly conservative former Canadian Prime Minister] Stephen Harper" -- makes the following claim while urging Ontario's Progressive Conservative leader Patrick Brown to implement carbon taxation:
B.C.'s emissions have crept up in recent years -- but only after the carbon price was frozen. (B.C. is now looking at raising the carbon tax and cutting other taxes.)
Wrong.
The province's own data on this topic refute Cameron's claims.
British Columbia's so-called "revenue-neutral carbon tax was implemented on July 1, 2008, and the final scheduled increase took effect on July 1, 2012." The tax was increased by CAD $5/tonne of CO2e per year from CAD$10/tonne in 2008 to CAD$30/tonne in 2012.
Thus, the last increase in the carbon tax was in mid-2012, meaning that the "carbon price was frozen" only from 2013 onwards.
And what happened to B.C.'s emissions? They increased from 2010 to 2011 by 0.45%, despite the carbon price rising in 2011.
And then they increased yet again from 2011 to 2012 by 1.80%, despite the carbon price rising in 2012.
Emissions continued to rise from 2012 to 2013 by 0.91% while the carbon price was held constant in 2013.
Consequently, any claim that B.C.'s emissions have only risen after the carbon price was frozen are false.
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