Can the provinces keep the money?

It seems that the point has been made about climate change: Industry can destroy the environment if they pay a tax on it. And that is why the provinces are so eager to cooperate with the Trudeau government. It is all determined by who gets the money. It makes you wonder how the federal government will get anything out of the provincial carbon tax bonanza?

It all started with British Columbia. Premier Christie Clark has acted something like a mother hen with her chicks. She insists the B.C. carbon tax is revenue neutral but the province operates the toll booths and sets the prices. We expect her province intends to keep the profits from the sin of pollution.

Premier Rachel Notley announced her Alberta solution to climate change with the enthusiasm of a second coming. It seems you can ship all the bitumen where you want as long as you pay the province when you go over the to-be-determined cap. The beauty of the plan is that both individual citizens and polluters get to pay for this and the individual taxpayer might get some money back when the province feels generous.

Premier Brad Wall of Saskatchewan is still stonewalling the federal government over Syrian refugees coming to Canada. We all assume this must be part of his strategy to win the federal Conservative leadership and so everyone is trying to ignore him. Anyway, we expect Saskatchewan to follow the Alberta lead.

All Manitoba does is a lot of talking about climate change but has not figured out how to tax it yet. Premier Greg Selinger of Manitoba will be at the conference to learn how.

Being supposed Liberals, Ontario and Quebec’s premiers are flexing their muscles and are ready to defend their highly profitable cap and trade tax plan. They have even got California tied into the loop to give them even more heft. Both provinces will make a killing on the taxes if the feds agree to them keeping the money.

And then there are the Atlantic provinces that are not causing very much climate change. Mind you they are always open to good tax plans.

You can just imagine this crowd of premiers standing behind Prime Minister Trudeau at the Paris climate conference. His RCM Police detail will be more concerned about the premiers picking the prime minister’s pockets than any serious security concerns.

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