A top Canadian climate-change expert says a carbon tax would do more to encourage Manitobans to ditch gas-guzzling cars than an incentive program, but Manitoba officials say they have no plans to introduce one.

Manitoba is currently finalizing its climate change legislation, which will put into law reduction targets outlined in the Kyoto Protocol on climate change. The new law will require Manitoba to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions to six per cent below what they were in 1990 by 2012.

Getting old cars off the road is one way to lower emissions; approximately 12 per cent of passenger vehicles in Manitoba were built in 1995 or before — predating today's tougher emissions standards — and they emit 65 times more hydrocarbon emissions than a 2007 vehicle, according to the Manitoba Lung Association.

The province helps fund an incentive program, called Bye Bye Beater, which offers people who junk an older vehicle $500 vouchers toward the purchase of a 2002 or newer vehicle, tax receipts or savings on transit fares and bicycles.

While some Manitobans have taken advantage of the incentive program — about 4,500 last year, or three per cent of those on the road — some Manitobans who drive older cars say the incentive program isn't enough to convince them to get their older vehicles off the road.

"I can't afford a new car," said Scott Nosaty, a Manitoba university student who drives a 1987 Chrysler New Yorker. "I can't see [the program] giving me enough so I can get a reasonable car."

Scott Nosaty's 1987 Chrysler New Yorker would not pass Ontario's emissions standards, according to tests at a Winnipeg autobody shop.
(CBC)

Mark Jaccard, climate change adviser for B.C.'s premier, says those cash incentives are a waste of money, and the province would be better off introducing a carbon tax.

"The old cars that are out there right now, if you pay people money to get rid of those old cars, those old cars would have died in the next five or 10 years, anyway," he said.

As for those who take the cash incentive, he says there's no way to know if they were going to scrap their cars, regardless of the money.

Carbon tax a better plan: adviser

A far better approach, he said, is B.C.'s new carbon tax, introduced in the province's February budget, and set to take effect in July 2008.

Under the new tax, carbon-based fuels, including gasoline, diesel, natural gas, propane, coal and home heating fuel, will be taxed at $10 per tonne of greenhouse gases generated, starting July 1, 2008, rising by $5 per year for the next four years.

Charging more at the pump — starting at 2.4 cents per litre in July, and increasing to about seven cents by 2012 — forces motorists to drive less or consider lower-emission cars, he said.

"We need to evolve our transportation technologies, our cars, towards zero-emission and very low-emission vehicles, with respect to respect to greenhouse gas. That means we need regulations, or we need carbon taxes that change the choices that people make," Jaccard said.

"As long as the atmosphere is free, as long as you can put greenhouse gases into the atmosphere, then technologies will not evolve in the direction of reducing greenhouse gas emissions in a significant way."

'Have faith in Manitobans': minister

But Manitoba's government stands by its incentive programs.

"As of yet, we don't have plans for a carbon tax," said Jim Rondeau, the minister for climate change initiatives.

"I have lots of faith in Manitobans," he added. "By giving them proper information and the tools, that they'll make the right decisions, and that's been shown as far as the hybrids, that's been shown as the retirement programs."

As for Nosaty, he's not sure if a few extra bucks at the pump through a carbon tax would do any more to force his car off the road than the incentive program.

"Technically, gas has somewhat doubled since I started driving. I've always been a gas guzzler, and that hasn't made me switch," he said.

"I think I'd drive less, but I don't know if it would make me switch."