Carbon plan would hurt people and industries: Alberta premier
Last Updated: Monday, June 23, 2008 | 12:02 PM MT
CBC News
The carbon tax plan announced last week by the federal Liberal leader would damage the interests of people and businesses if implemented, Alberta Premier Ed Stelmach said Sunday.
Stelmach was away when Stéphane Dion announced his $15-billion dollar Liberal Green Shift plan last Thursday. His comments Sunday were the first he's made on the subject.
"This is one that is certainly going to hurt agriculture, hurt the manufacturing sector," he told reporters Sunday, echoing comments made late last week by the province's finance minister, Iris Evans, who called the tax plan "destructive."
The Liberal proposal would levy new taxes on all industries that produce high carbon emissions and provide tax breaks to Canadians to help pay for higher energy and product costs caused by the tax hikes.
Stelmach said the added costs would make it harder for Canadian farmers and businesspeople to compete on the world market.
'My greatest fear is for those on fixed income, because your heating costs will go up. Just visiting your grandkids, you know, the fuel for the car will go up.'—Alberta Premier Ed Stelmach
"Because remember folks, we are competing with other countries around the world that don't have the same rules that we are playing [with]."
The premier said Dion's tax plan would hit one group in particular.
"My greatest fear is for those on fixed income, because your heating costs will go up. Just visiting your grandkids, you know, the fuel for the car will go up."
The Liberal plan proposes the new taxes to discourage reliance on fossil fuel and limit the growth of greenhouse gases, but is designed to shield Canadians from cost increases as a result of the change.
The province's own climate change takes a more sensible approach, the premier said.
It focuses the government's efforts on new carbon capture technology, which would store carbon dioxide produced by heavy industrial emitters rather than release it into the environment.
Critics have condemned the plan because it would not require any significant reduction in emissions until 2020.
