Kevin O'Leary's Letter to Premier Notley - Carbon Tax Discussion

[CaptainCrunch]

That was the plan with Dion's greenshift when he was running for PM. Ontario's manufacturing basin would be exempt from any penalties, so it basically just because a concept built around draining money from Alberta and Sask and putting that money into programs for Ontario and Quebec.

It'll be interesting to see if the Federal Government even considers this, especially knowing that they were implementing a Carbon Tax when our largest trade partner even under Obama had no interest in one.

[InglewoodFan]

Originally Posted by CorsiHockeyLeague

Isn't it listed as a surcharge to defray the carbon tax? That's a reasonable line item to include on a bill, much as you get a fuel surcharge despite the fact that it doesn't necessarily correlate to your share of the fuel costs for the flight. It's, "we have to pay for this thing, and we're passing the cost on to you by charging you $X in addition to what we would otherwise charge if we didn't have to pay it... but we're also telling you that we're doing that rather than just including it as part of the overall price." Nothing remotely misleading about that.

Looking at the picture in the article, it says "Carbon Tax". Which to my mind has a different meaning than "Carbon Tax Surcharge". Most of you won't agree with my interpretation, and that's fine.

[Enoch Root]

Originally Posted by Resurrection

Wait, a business acted with questionable ethics? Must be the first time. And a funeral home too. They're the most honest and trustworthy of all businesses.

Shocking.

God I hate this attitude.

Businesses are run by people. Most people - not all, but most - are ethical.

The vast majority (almost all) of all the businesses I have ever dealt with are ethical, just like the vast majority of people I have known.

This 'businesses are unethitcal meanies' rhetoric is just so juvenile.

[CaptainYooh]

Originally Posted by Enoch Root

...
This 'businesses are unethitcal meanies' rhetoric is just so juvenile.

You're right, but why do you engage with him and others like him? It's a pointless waste of time and just a source of aggravation.

[Enoch Root]

Originally Posted by CaptainYooh

You're right, but why do you engage with him and others like him? It's a pointless waste of time and just a source of aggravation.

Well I don't plan on getting into a debate about it, just expressing an opinion. A bit of a WGMG post.

[chemgear]

Originally Posted by Enoch Root

God I hate this attitude.

Businesses are run by people. Most people - not all, but most - are ethical.

The vast majority (almost all) of all the businesses I have ever dealt with are ethical, just like the vast majority of people I have known.

This 'businesses are unethitcal meanies' rhetoric is just so juvenile.

Big Kapitalist man, BIG Kapitalist.

[Locke]

Businesses are evil as are the morally despicable reprobates that engage in it.

The day when the Government is responsible for everything cant come soon enough.

The Glory Days of the Soviet Union...those were good times.

[Ozy_Flame]

I didn't derive Resurrection's comments to be that he thinks all businesses are unethical. He was being facetious and making fun of the fact that history is chock full of businesses acting unethically, but not saying every business is morally repugnant.

[cal_guy]

Originally Posted by CaptainCrunch

That was the plan with Dion's greenshift when he was running for PM. Ontario's manufacturing basin would be exempt from any penalties, so it basically just because a concept built around draining money from Alberta and Sask and putting that money into programs for Ontario and Quebec.

It'll be interesting to see if the Federal Government even considers this, especially knowing that they were implementing a Carbon Tax when our largest trade partner even under Obama had no interest in one.

Dion's plan was a pretty textbook raise carbon taxes lower personal and corporate taxes type of plan. There were no manufacturing exemptions.

[Dion]

Carbon levy exacerbates harm from other tax hikes

Two years ago, Alberta had the lowest top combined federal-provincial (or state) personal income tax rate in Canada and the United States, with a simple, pro-growth single-rate income tax structure that helped attract people and investment.

In 2015, the newly elected Notley government scrapped the single-rate tax, replacing it with a five-bracket system in which the top rate increased to 15 per cent — that’s a 50 per cent hike.

Thanks to this increase, and a recent increase to the top federal personal income tax rate, Alberta’s top personal income tax rate is now the 16th highest among 61 Canadian and American jurisdictions. Farewell to this once-important component of Alberta’s tax advantage.

More bad news on the corporate tax front. Whereas Alberta used to have the lowest statutory corporate income tax rate in Canada, the 20 per cent increase implemented in 2015 has dropped the province squarely to the middle of the Canadian pack. This represents another blow to Alberta’s tax advantage and growth prospects.

And now on top of these tax increases comes the new carbon tax. The economic implications of implementing a carbon tax hard on the heels of these other tax increases are worrying. Research shows that an important downside of a carbon tax is caused by its interactions with other harmful taxes.

Simply put, it shows that the introduction of a carbon tax can make the economic damage caused by other economically inefficient taxes (like the corporate income tax) even worse.

http://calgaryherald.com/opinion/col...ther-tax-hikes

[Tinordi]

More grist for the "China is doing nothing on climate change therefore Canada shouldn't do anything either" mill:

http://energydesk.greenpeace.org/201...ity-crackdown/

China suspends (cancels) 100 GW of planned coal fired power capacity.

Canada's total capacity is 130 GW.

[Fuzz]

So they are starting to realize chocking their citizens to death and having to shut down their cities every so often isn't the greatest strategic move? Good for them!

Lets dig deeper...I'll use your source.

Earlier this year Energydesk revealed that 210 coal-fired power plants with a total capacity of 168GW were granted approval in 2015 alone.


Those plants will not be stopped by this latest measure.

Hrmm, well now that's higher than the number they suspended this year.

The overcapacity has gotten so bad – reportedly reaching 20% – that the government has this year announced it will stop building already approved coal plants in 15 provinces and stop opening new coal mines until 2019.
Warning
The ‘red light’ is designed to stop overzealous provincial governments from approving coal capacity they don’t need.
The system is reportedly based on three factors, with provinces assessed on the profitability of their coal-fired generation, their existing coal capacity and their ‘resource constraints’.

Oh, I see. So the primary reason for this system is to cut out oversupply, so its for economic reasons. Good climate change narrative though! Keep trying, Tinordi!

http://energydesk.greenpeace.org/201...-power-plants/

[OMG!WTF!]

Originally Posted by Tinordi

More grist for the "China is doing nothing on climate change therefore Canada shouldn't do anything".

Just stamp a giant "SUCKER" tattoo on your forehead if you think this has anything at all to do with climate change.

[Erick Estrada]

Originally Posted by Tinordi

More grist for the "China is doing nothing on climate change therefore Canada shouldn't do anything either" mill:

http://energydesk.greenpeace.org/201...ity-crackdown/

China suspends (cancels) 100 GW of planned coal fired power capacity.

Canada's total capacity is 130 GW.

Dude take from someone that works in the industry that China is a joke. We sell CEMS analyzers and in recent years China has become a big customer. So much that we had to open up a China based office for sales, commissioning, and service. All they want from us is the cheapest equipment with little reguard for accuracy or repeatability and when it gets installed they aren't even using it a lot of the time. They are putting a lot of emissions equipment in their plants just to say they have it and a lot of it isn't running or working properly. It's unfortunately a big joke in our business unit when we are doing these China jobs as we are typically supplying that's borderline up to the task of accurately monitoring the gases they need to measure but they don't care as long as it's our cheapest models that doesn't include sample conditioning.

In Canada and US it's extremely strict as is facilities fail RATA testing the entire facility can be shut down. It's serious business and the reason my job is essentially recession proof because our business is growing not shrinking. It just really bothers me when people beat down our industry when we are doing things right and you have countries like China that are so corrupt.

[Tinordi]

So much hostility.

If you think that cancelling 100 GW of coal power is doing nothing for the climate then so be it. They also just pledged to invest $361 billion in renewable energy between now and 2020 and will implement the world's largest cap and trade system by 2020.

I'm sure we'll find all the reasons as to why this isn't actually doing something in the posts to follow...

[MrMastodonFarm]

Originally Posted by Tinordi

So much hostility.

If you think that cancelling 100 GW of coal power is doing nothing for the climate then so be it. They also just pledged to invest $361 billion in renewable energy between now and 2020 and will implement the world's largest cap and trade system by 2020.

I'm sure we'll find all the reasons as to why this isn't actually doing something in the posts to follow...

The naivety is palpable.

[Tinordi]

Originally Posted by MrMastodonFarm

The naivety is palpable.

Go on...

[MelBridgeman]

Originally Posted by Tinordi

If you think that cancelling 100 GW of coal power is doing nothing for the climate then so be it.

Climate change is a global problem not a regional problem, but ya cancelling a 100 GW coal power plant isn't going to do anything, when there are 1000 others ready to come online in the future

Link to greenpeace
http://energydesk.greenpeace.org/201...pacity-policy/

[Fuzz]

Originally Posted by Tinordi

So much hostility.

If you think that cancelling 100 GW of coal power is doing nothing for the climate then so be it. They also just pledged to invest $361 billion in renewable energy between now and 2020 and will implement the world's largest cap and trade system by 2020.

I'm sure we'll find all the reasons as to why this isn't actually doing something in the posts to follow...

Well, you show up with a snarky post, you should expect some blow back. The fact is they didn't remove 100GW from currently polluting plants, they just cancelled the construction of new ones, and the only reason they did it was for economics.

Answer me this, when was the last coal plant built in China, and Canada? What year did China, and Canada remove more coal plants than they built? Now honestly, who is making an honest effort, Canada, or China?

Also the fact that you think their cap and trade system is going to be anything more than a total farce makes me think you haven't been paying much attention to how things work in China...

[MrMastodonFarm]

Originally Posted by Tinordi

Go on...

There you go, Fuzz beat me to it and summed it up better then I ever could.