To the Editor:
On Jan. 23, 2023, federal Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre was in Terrace after Skeena MLA Ellis Ross had announced he will run for the Conservative Party of Canada in the 2025 federal election.
Kevin Falcon, BC United leader and Mr. Ross’s current boss and the federal Conservatives want to remove the carbon tax, a pollution fee, if elected.
However, about 75 per cent of B.C.’s population gets a rebate of $447 per year and funds collected also pay for other things, like lowering income taxes if you are in the lower income level.
The removal of this pollution fee would benefit richer people and the richest companies the most.
My fully electric household’s cost for the full year for heating and all other energy use was $881.68.
That is with baseboard heaters, the cost of which to buy and install was $ 1,000, versus a gas line cost to install of $3,500 or more and for a gas furnace of $10,000.
As for driving, a full year at 34,000 kilometres was $750 in my electric vehicle, including fast charging on highway trips. If I would have used a gas model, a Chevy Trax, I would have used more than 3,500 litres of gas and the cost would have been more than $6,000.
Not only that, but by reducing my impact on our planet, by using less fossil fuels, I not only saved a lot of cash, but also reduced pollution.
As we have seen during the pandemic, reducing fossil fuel use, means cleaner air and the related health benefits, such as reduced health care costs and fewer deaths.
So if the pollution fee/carbon tax gets cancelled, the richest people and companies would benefit the most But there will be related increases in floods, forest fires, heat waves and droughts.
Martin Holzbauer,
Thornhill, B.C.