5/26/2008

Just What the Hell is Going on with this Government

The utter arrogance of a government elected to serve the people in not even listening to those peoples' concerns regarding what I allege is nothing but a photo-op grabbing political minded policy that does nothing to penalize huge earth polluting businesses. The only people that this benefits is big business. They get millions in credits to keep doing what they are doing while we pay at the pumps. There are a lot of retirees in this province Mr. Campbell, that are on fixed incomes and they absolutely cannot afford to bail out businesses that are poluting this planet. And then to have Ms Taylor do the dirty work for the premier while he gets ready to golf with his buddies is just plain sick.

I beleive sir that you have just put the final nail in your own political coffin.



B.C. mayor quashes carbon-tax protest plan
IAN BAILEY

From Monday's Globe and Mail

May 25, 2008 at 9:18 PM EDT

VANCOUVER — A "blunt" telephone conversation with B.C. Finance Minister Carole Taylor has cooled plans by a northern B.C. mayor to launch a revolt over the groundbreaking carbon tax.

Scott Nelson, mayor of Williams Lake, was planning to urge his council to back a motion this week that would have seen the municipality refuse to pay the carbon tax on its municipal fuel bills in order to highlight concerns that the tax is unfair to northerners, and not revenue-neutral for municipalities.

Williams Lake is estimating it will pay $75,000 a year in extra costs related to the carbon tax.

But Mr. Nelson said he is backing down after a 25-minute chat with Ms. Taylor in which it appears she made it clear the tax was going ahead without concessions for northerners.

"She was pretty blunt, pretty to the point. They're moving ahead," Mr. Nelson said in an interview.

He may be backing down, but the leader in the community of about 12,000 people did not sound happy about the situation.

"[They] recognize there may be potential discrepancies across the province, but they want to move forward with it," he said.

"They're moving ahead regardless of any outcries from any municipalities, any regional districts, any hospital boards, any taxpayers."

He said there appears to be no way to move Victoria. "If the door is partly cracked, you can tend to put your foot through a little bit," he said.

"[This] door is so tight. And the shackles … they have thrown the keys away and said, 'We're moving forward.' "

[snip]

The tax is to be revenue-neutral, which means it will be returned to British Columbians through tax breaks. There is also to be a $100-per-adult Climate Action Credit to offset its impact.

Some municipalities say the revenue-neutral promise won't work for local governments. Northerners have also said the tax is unfair because they consume more fuel than those in the south due to a colder climate, fewer public-transit options and the need to drive more.

[snip]

Ms. Taylor declined to get into details about what she told Mr. Nelson, who has described himself as an enthusiastic supporter of Premier Gordon Campbell and the Liberal government, and also supportive of dealing with climate change, but wary about the fine points of the carbon tax.

But she noted the Liberal government is committed to offering municipalities funds to help them meet the costs of changing to reduce their demand for energy thus mitigating carbon-tax bills.

"From the government's point of view, we have set out an agenda that says we are going to reduce carbon emissions by a third by 2020, and one tool that we have is to price carbon, and it will be brought in on all carbon-emitting fuels in the province, and there won't be any exemptions," she said.

"The Premier has made that quite clear."

Ms. Taylor said her door is open for conversations with any mayors on the issue.

Mr. Nelson was proposing to divert funds for carbon-tax payment into a savings account until the province could prove the tax was revenue-neutral – an idea that won some support elsewhere in the north.

Seven resolutions raising concerns about the tax were melded into one package resolution and moved with massive support at this month's meeting in Prince George of the North Central Municipal Association, representing about 40 northern municipalities.

Mr. Campbell gave a keynote speech at the gathering, but made no reference to the resolutions that came a day before his appearance.

Mr. Nelson called the Premier's omission "extraordinarily bold" and "brazen."

"The most contentious issue in the north and it wasn't even spoken about in his speech."

Mr. Nelson said it did not appear the NCMA resolutions caught government attention, but his proposed protest did.

Some of his allies were caught off-guard. Nate Bello, the mayor of Quesnel, had offered initial support for Mr. Nelson's protest, but waited for written details he could discuss with his own council.

Jon Wolbers, a Williams Lake councillor who is also chairman of the Cariboo Regional District representing four regional communities, was also ready to back Mr. Nelson.

"I thought it was a pretty good idea. I didn't realize he had backed down," he said. "The bottom line is still that it's not a neutral tax. It's still a cause for concern."

Now I'm wondering either what did they have against the mayor or what was promised for him to back down? Were there threats?

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Gary, glossed over in this story, as this quote

Mr. Nelson, who has described himself as an enthusiastic supporter of Premier Gordon Campbell and the Liberal government, and also supportive of dealing with climate change, but wary about the fine points of the carbon tax.

is that Scott Nelson is widely expected to run for the Liberals in 2009. Clearly the implication was that if he didn't back down, Gordo would not let him run under the Liberal banner. So they let him fulminate a little to satisfy the locals, but ultimately, he capitulated.

Make no mistake, the Liberals play the political game for one reason and one reason only: to win. People can dance around this issue any way they want, but unless the voters come to understand that, he will continue to govern however he wants between elections, and then say just enough to please just enough people every four years.

Gary E said...

Anon 5:36

Although I live in the area of Williams Lake I hadn't heard that Scott Nelson was expected to run for the Liberals. I will check it out. If your information is correct then that would explain a whole lot of what is going on here.

I am under no illusions that the Liberals (Gordon Campbell) play the political game other than to win.

Can you rememgber back to 96 when he and his party lost the election. His body language and everything he said seethed with contempt for the NDP as well as the unions. I used to think the man was crazy in the way he acted.
At election time I told some co-workers that we were in big trouble if he won a majority. The rest is history.