Dear Editor
In reply to Gerry Ritz “Liberal carbon tax will neuter your revenue.”
Well, here we go again, another supposedly responsible member of parliament, basically denying the existence of man made climate change. I am fed up with the likes of Gerry Ritz and other right wing deniers playing Russian roulette with the future of humanity.
Ritz mentioned that “This Liberal government is forcing in a carbon tax plan that has a proven record of failure” in Australia where it was scrapped! What he neglected to mention is the fact that approximately 40 countries and more than 20 cities, states and provinces already use carbon pricing mechanisms or are planning to implement them.
It was also noted that the United States has officially started the process for NAFTA renegotiation, and that (carbon pricing) “will hurt people the most who can afford it the least.”
Hogwash, that is only a scare tactic that can only come true if the provincial government handles the money collected on their behalf irresponsibly! In actual fact it is the trade agreements themselves (by corporate negotiated design) that have done more to stagnate and reduce wages in many industries and if by some miracle the Trump government was intending to be fair (which I don't believe for one second), the carbon pricing program will have to be part of that renegotiation because it has already been introduced in several of the G7 and G8 nations, one of which is Mexico, which is one of the NAFTA members.
The one thing in the Ritz media release that I do agree with is that the global market place is filled with instability at this time, but I believe his reasons are more of self serving fiction than of reality! In reality it is the ever increasing wealth inequality/gap that is (in many cases) the cause of the instability we are seeing in the world today. And in Canada it has been both the Liberal and Conservative governments of the past 25-30 years that have facilitated this dramatic shift in balance!
Carbon pricing in one form or another is necessary to try and achieve a specific goal. It has to be implemented fairly and it is our responsibility as both voters and tax payers to make sure that the money collected on behalf of our province is used wisely. But, for Gerry Ritz, or Brad Wall for that matter, to refuse to act on (climate change) what has been recognized by the scientific community and many countries around the world, as a significant risk to the future of humanity, then I say they have failed to act in the best interests of those who elected them and as such need to be replaced!
Erik Hansen
Unity
