B.C.'s municipal leaders asked the provincial government to ease the cost of the controversial carbon tax at the annual convention of the Union of B.C. Municipalities in Penticton Wednesday.

It took an hour of heated debate for the delegates from around B.C. to pass a resolution asking the Liberal government to reduce the financial impact of the tax and create incentives for small communities to reduce greenhouse gases.

Penticton Mayor Jake Kimberley feared that the tax, if left unchanged, would hit municipal budgets hard. "We need some help and financial help," said Kimberley after the vote.

The provincial carbon tax introduced this summer levies a 2.4 cents per litre tax on gasoline and a similar tax on all other carbon-based fuels sold in B.C. The government promised the tax will be used to reduce income and business taxes.

Many delegates said they want the government to start taxing polluters instead.

Cap-and-trade and carbon tax will work: expert

But a leading climate change expert says B.C. already has a plan to tax big polluters as well, and the province is doing the best possible job to fight global warming with its proposed cap-and-trade system.

The proposal is from the Western Climate Initiative, a partnership of four provinces, including B.C., and seven U.S. states.

The plan aims to impose caps on greenhouse gas emissions and introduce a carbon trading system covering 70 per cent of the Canadian economy and about 20 per cent of the American economy by 2015.

University of Victoria climatologist and climate change expert Dr. Andrew Weaver says people should know that cap-and-trade and carbon taxes are roughly equivalent in economic terms.

They both put a price on emissions, which is the best way to address global warming, he said.

Environment Minister Barry Penner has also defended the carbon tax, saying it's being introduced gradually to give people time to adjust, and every penny will be returned with offsetting income and business tax cuts.

New climate change programs

Meanwhile, the B.C. government continued to push its environmental agenda ahead on two other fronts.

Premier Gordon Campbell named 70 people to serve on seven new regional citizens' conservation councils. The council members, ranging from local politicians to young people, will advise the government on ways to encourage people to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

The government also announced it will spend $22 million to upgrade 74 hospitals, schools, social housing complexes and government buildings to be more energy efficient.