Carbon tax "classic" Gordo: Gordon Price

Long-time NPA councillor Gordon Price is calling the B.C. Liberal's new carbon tax a "classic Gordon Campbell" move.

Price should know. He was on Vancouver city council between 1986 and 2002—seven of those years alongside then–NPA mayor Campbell. He said the genius here is that Campbell "can't be outflanked on the right".

"But it is just a huge message, almost a slap, to those who had been thinking about climate change as a debate you would have around junk science—a marginal issue," Price told the Straight by phone from a Paris sustainability conference. "I think the implications of it [the carbon tax] are profound. I will tell you the world over here takes the whole issue at a completely different level of seriousness."

In her February 18 budget, B.C. Finance Minister Carole Taylor announced a tax on fossil fuels of $10 per tonne of carbon-associated emissions. The Straight told Price about critics, such as Kevin Washbrook from Voters Taking Action on Climate Change, who told the Straight last week that the tax is "too low to really have an impact".

"Oh, come on, that is hardly the point," Price said of Washbrook's comments. "He [Campbell] took a huge political risk, and you can see it in some of the comments in the [local media the following day]."

Price said the political left may also be suffering from policy envy.

"Look, I understand the left's position," he said. "They hate it when the right grabs their agenda, and they are very reluctant to acknowledge the significance of it, and that is something that I can do. And I just want to say that from my perspective in Paris, where I have sat through this conference, it put me back in my seat. To introduce the first carbon tax—this one which incorporates social justice and sends out a clear message in the medium- and long-term—that is a very big deal."

Comments

1 Comments

Grumpy

Feb 28, 2008 at 7:35am

Gordon Price, the 'Prima Donna' of the bicycle set, has no real insight into environmental problems that beset the region. He has retired from civic politics and now pretends he is a S.F.U. type, poisoning the minds of planning wannabe's. Ah, yes the international acedemic set, jetting here and there, enjoying foriegn sights, on the taxpayer's dime. Oh the life of a acedemic.

If mini 'gordo' was straight, he would have said that the newly established Carbon tax should be called the SkyTrain/Bombardier tax, for that is what the carbon tax is.

TransLink's fascination with the now obsolete proprietary SkyTrain light-metro system (endorsed by Vancouver's NPA, which Price was a member) and the provincial government's announcement of a $14 billion transit plan, which includes the under construction $125 million/km. RAV light-metro line; an over $230 million/km. extension of the SkyTrain Millennium Line to UBC; the over $100 million/km, SkyTrain Evergreen line, and future $100 million+/km. SkyTrain extensions in Surrey, needs a very large tax to fund it. The Carbon tax is the vehicle.

Bombardier Inc. is the sole owner and supplier of SkyTrain and the cars for the RAV/Canada Line are Bombardier metro cars built under licence by Rotem.

SkyTrain is so expensive to build and operate (the driverless SkyTrain costs a lot more to operate than LRT systems the same size) that no other city in the world uses the light-metro exclusively for public transit.

TransLink has cunningly manipulated transit planning to justify SkyTrain in corridor after corridor, and thus succeeded in keeping its proprietary rail system expanding. In the US, all new transit projects that seek federal support are now subjected to scrutiny by a panel of transit peers selected and monitored by the federal government, to ensure that projects are analysed honestly, and the taxpayers' interests are protected. No SkyTrain project has ever passed this scrutiny in the US.

For less than half the cost of Kevin Falcon's and Premier Campbell's announced provincial transit plans, the city of Denver is building three times the 'rail' transit by building with LRT. Denver is spending $6 billion to increase its present light rail operation by 195 km.

Until we start building affordable 'rail' transit for the region, expect the Carbon/SkyTrain/Bombardier Tax to increase on an annual basis, until it bankrupts the province.

During times of universal deceit, telling the truth becomes a revolutionary act. (George Orwell)