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Originally Posted by mrkajz44
I feel like I'm taking crazy pills or something here as I don't understand why the carbon tax should be discussed at all. They can't just "scrap" the carbon tax as the federal carbon tax backstop will then just kick-in, no? The reality is that the carbon tax in Canada is here to stay and to campaign that it'll just suddenly disappear seems misleading.
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No, you hit the nail pretty much right on the head. If Alberta scraps the carbon tax, the feds impose their plan the very next day. Instead of revenue coming into provincial coffers, it gets re-distributed in the form of refundable tax credits to Alberta citizens. Ontario residents are eligible for the Climate Action Incentive on their 2018 tax returns; a family of 4 qualifies for $307.
While there is a chance that the federal program won't survive a fall election or the court challenges, neither of these events has any reasonable assurance of happening. Not to get into a federal politics debate, but I don't think Scheer can get elected, and lets be honest, people have short memories, and the SNC thing will blow over. And the court challenge doesn't seem to be worrying the feds in any significant fashion.
All this to say, voting UCP because you think Kenney will kill the carbon tax, which will immediately raise oil by $25 a barrel, and return 25,000 jobs to Alberta is sheer fantasy. All scrapping the carbon tax does at this point is take money out of provincial revenue while simultaneously providing the Liberals with a cash tax credit they can campaign on. And I would not be surprised to see the feds promise to switch it to a pure refund program (like Ralph Bucks) during a fall campaign. And who doesn't want to vote for the guy who sends a $300 cheque every year?
Kenney would be much smarter to campaign on modifying the program, and focusing on the key element of retaining provincial control. For a guy who has such a problem with Ottawa (amongst many, many other problems, character deficiencies and moral shortcomings), turning over control of anything related to the resource sector seems so foolish.