While British Columbians mutter profanities as they watch gas prices soaring聽as high as $1.79 a litre, carbon-tax advocates who should be popping champagne are instead quietly avoiding eye contact.
Anyone who wonders if gas prices matter to ordinary people should spend an afternoon watching a busy border crossing. British Columbians are flocking to Washington State to fill up, where, even after the exchange rate, they鈥檙e saving about聽50 cents per litre.
For a vehicle with a 70-litre fuel tank, that works out to saving $35 per fill up. Multiply that by two fill ups a weeks for the average commuter family in Langley (not a lot of people can afford to live downtown with outrageously high housing costs) and suddenly you鈥檙e looking at either spending in Canada or saving in the States $70 extra per week 鈥� or $3,600 per year.
A little further down the road in Seattle, the聽price of gasoline聽is even cheaper, at about $1.15 (Canadian) per litre, proving that a major city in the Pacific Northwest can indeed exist without prohibitively high fuel costs.
With these record prices coming just weeks after the introduction of the new federal carbon tax in Manitoba, New Brunswick, Ontario and Saskatchewan, federal Conservative leader Andrew Scheer was聽keen聽to highlight B.C.鈥檚 high prices as a glimpse into the future for all Canadians under steadily rising carbon taxes.
Some carbon-tax backers immediately聽pounced聽on the argument, noting that B.C. has had a carbon tax for over a decade and that B.C.鈥檚 high prices didn鈥檛 have anything to do with the new federal tax. They鈥檙e actually missing the point.
It鈥檚 true that taxes are not the聽only聽factor that determines gas prices, but they are among the biggest. In B.C., different types of taxes accounted for聽about a third聽of the entire price, including the provincial carbon tax that works out to聽9.8 cents per litre聽with GST.
Carbon-tax advocates should be very happy about this state of affairs. Based on the logic of carbon taxes, The聽causes聽of higher fuel prices are irrelevant; it only matters that prices are high enough to discourage consumption. Carbon taxes are just meant to ensure that prices stay higher, even when the market price is lower. So you鈥檇 think such high gas prices would deliver the punishment carbon-tax advocates keep saying is necessary to reduce emissions. They should be cheering themselves hoarse.
Instead, carbon tax disciples don鈥檛 seem too keen to boast about high gas prices. It鈥檚 almost as if they鈥檙e afraid it will make carbon taxes even more unpopular.
That seems to be the conclusion drawn by B.C. Premier John Horgan, who in recent weeks was聽musing聽about offering 鈥渞elief鈥� from high gas prices. That鈥檚 strange, since the B.C. NDP are big fans of carbon taxes. In fact, the B.C. government just jacked up the provincial carbon tax again on Apr. 1. Did no one tell the NDP that the very point of carbon taxes is to drive up prices? Were they not aware that high gas prices 鈥� or more accurately, high聽everything聽prices 鈥� are not a bug, but a feature?
Indeed, when the B.C. Liberals first implemented the carbon tax in 2008, they promised it would stop rising at $30 per ton, be revenue neutral, and lead to a plethora of affordable alternative energies, all while reducing carbon emissions.
Ten years later none of those things are true.
Interestingly, now that they鈥檝e had a chance to sober up on the opposition benches, the B.C. Liberals are throwing their lot in with embattled commuters, saying that provincial gas taxes are too high and they鈥檙e demanding relief too.
No average commuter family could be expected to absorb $3,600 in additional gasoline costs and not feel the hurt financially. But suddenly, carbon-tax cheerleaders don鈥檛 seem so keen on championing that pain in the wallet.
Scheer is simply pointing out the obvious: whatever their direct relationship to the carbon tax itself, high gas prices in B.C. are an expensive sneak preview of just the kind of future that the Trudeau government, with its rising carbon tax, wants for all Canadians. The government wants your gas to be more expensive, period. What carbon-tax advocates don鈥檛 want you to realize is that it will be just as unpleasant as what Vancouver drivers are dealing with now.
(This column originally appeared in the Financial Post)
