Dear Editor:
You omitted one big item that is impacted by the carbon tax in your Sept. 14 story, NV Mayors Urge Carbon Tax Change.
We pay more tax on the natural gas we use for home heating than we do for gas for our vehicles as we do not use much of either fuel. If the tax on natural gas was removed it would help a lot of struggling public organizations, school boards being one. It would also remove the pressure to increase electricity supply as electricity for heating purposes increases consumption of that resource.
It would be beneficial if the media would sometimes take the time to investigate the details of these issues and provide a little more information to educate the public. In a few minutes I got the following information from the online government website:
- Carbon tax revenue in 2010-2011, $741 million; tax reductions, $865 million (personal $391 million, business $474 million).
- Carbon tax revenue revised forecast 2011-2012, $960 million; tax reductions, $1,152 million (personal $481 million, business $671 million).
As you can see, the government is giving away more money than it gets in its neutral carbon tax program - and it is getting worse. So much for good government and you can see who is getting proportionally more each year.
David Knee North Vancouver
