Two weeks ago in the Barrhead Leader we questioned the timing of both the provincial and the federal governments’ stances on carbon taxes.
With the state of the provincial economy we don’t think it is the right time to put stressors on an industry already feeling the pinch.
As you will read next week, Barrhead-Morinville-Westlock MLA Glenn van Dijken and Woodlands County agree, as do the majority of Albertans, but all that being said carbon pricing in Alberta and the rest of the country is inevitable.
Representatives from Suncor, Shell, Cenovus and Canadian Natural Resources Ltd have all spoken in favour of Alberta’s Climate Leadership Plan, rolled out by premier Rachel Notley last year, and its carbon-tax centrepiece.
Why?
In July 2015, CAPP (Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers) estimated the increase of the carbon levy, along with the increase in the corporate tax, would increase costs to the industry of about $800 million. The overall oilsands emission limit of 100 megatonnes, in all likelihood, also will have an impact on the bottom line on the energy sector with companies either lowering production, which of course impacts the labour force and employment.
However, oil companies also know that unless they start making a dent in the poor image the industry has across the rest of the country, the chances of having a pipeline that gets their product to international markets are greatly reduced.
They also know, that human nature being what it is, that without proper incentives, oil companies will not make the necessary investments required to lower their emissions.
You can see this tendency at a lower scale at the municipal level. In our Sept. 27 edition, we told our readers how town council had commissioned a group of studies by Opus Stewart Weir, after the town received a warning from Environment Canada stating the municipality had failed a test checking the safety of effluent discharge on aquatic life in August 2015.
While the studies concluded the failed test was, in part, due to an unique set of circumstances, it did point out the need to upgrade the town’s lagoon water treatment system, something it is in the initial phases of doing. The report also said the town had not performed necessary maintenance, i.e. dredging of sludge in the lagoon, as often as they should have.
Why is this? Not because of negligence, but, at least in part, because its human nature. There was always something that seemed to be more pressing or an issue that was sexier. We also do this in our own lives, putting of what we find unpalatable, sometimes to dire consequences.
The same thing can be said about climate change and greenhouse gasses (GHG). The world knows GHGs are bad and that something has to be done, but very few countries have done anything of substance to combat it. Now we are paying the consequences, including in all likelihood, in the wallet through a carbon tax.
