[mtbr]

http://rjjago.wordpress.com/2008/09/26/ ... e-neutral/

[Apollo]

At least one of them can see the obvious.

What are the odds Dion will come clean?

[BlueMan]

Hopefully, by election day, everyone will see it for what it really is. The green shaft!

[karra]

$1:

Despite the millions in special breaks and programs promised by Liberal leader Stephane Dion, farmers are not buying into the Green Shift carbon tax.

A reader has sent me this excerpt from Ontario Farmer. John Parsons is a certified accountant as well as a farmer, and he has issues with the agricultural policies of all the major parties. But in this piece for the magazine, he quickly runs through his other objections to turn his attention exclusively, and at great length, to Stephane Dion's Green Shift carbon tax, the central plank of the Liberal Party platform:

$1:

I'm particularly confused by the Green Shift plan which seems to take direct aim at all the wrong things in Canada.

The Greyhound bus trundling along with 50 passengers will get hit with seven cents per litre in green taxes on its diesel fuel consumption.

The plane flying in from Vancouver with 300 passengers will have to crank up their fares to cover a 6.2 cent green tax on jet fuel.

The tractor trailer hauling carrots out of the Holland Marsh will fork out an extra seven cents a litre to get food to the masses in downtown Toronto.

The impact at the farm level is very clear. On 10,000 litres in diesel fuel consumption alone, the Green Taxes will cost me an extra $700 per year.

We're lucky to live in town where we've been able to tap into natural gas heating. This will cost us only an extra two cents per gigajoule in taxes. That pales in comparison to the 11.3 cent per litre increase on furnace oil, which James and Michelle will have to pay out in the country. Like most farmers, they have no choice other than cutting down more trees to burn wood.

These are the obvious up-front costs for us. Fertilizer prices will go rocketing higher with green taxes sprinkled in along the way. Hydro bills are going only one way in Ontario as the coal burning plants get hit with massive green taxes.

In fact, every major farm input will have to go up in price just to cover the extra taxes incurred by the manufacturers, wholesalers, and distributors.

Ah, but the Green Shift plan promises to take care of that. It's guaranteed to be revenue neutral, and every one of us will enjoy huge income tax savings. According to the Liberal Green Shift Tax Benefit Calculator, Janet and I will qualify for $722 in reduced income taxes because of the shift. That barely covers our extra cost in diesel fuel taxes, never mind all the other increases in farm input costs.
Yet the Liberals have a plan, just figured out on Sept. 3 this month, to help farmers. Dion proudly announced that "a new Liberal government will provide $900 million in green tax incentives and rebates to help the agriculture, forestry, trucking and fishing industries invest in cleaner technology, reduce their carbon emissions and save money."

Reading the fine print, this incentive will put $400 million towards the start of a cap and trade system and $250 million towards incentives to upgrade equipment and invest in new technologies. The balance goes to the fishermen and truckers.

We have no details on this cap and trade system, but the assistance with capital costs misses the point.

The Liberal party couldn't even afford to spring for the rent of a modern, fuel-efficient jet in this election. They're making do with a 30-year-old, carbon-belching relic, from Air Inuit. Yet we farmers are supposed to excitedly spring for the newest $100,000 plus "green tractor" with the help of a few dollars in green incentive subsidies.

Sorry, our problem is input costs, not with capital improvements. Fuel, fertilizer, herbicide, and other inputs are the killers.

Figure it out for yourself on your own farm. The additional Green Taxes won't reach their peak for a few years, but it doesn't take much of a crystal ball to see we farmers will be net losers.

Most farmers who live in the country will qualify for the $150 rural tax credit promised, but that's a piddling amount against the increases we're looking at.

I can foresee at least several thousand in extra costs from the Green Shift on our farm. Offset by just a mere $722 tax cut. That's revenue neutral?

Over to you Bob Friesen and Wayne Easter. Prove me wrong.

link

It seems only al-Gore's fartchatchers xly continue to buy into this nonsense;

ah yes indeed - the price of fawning dilatantes. . . .

[Wally_Sconce]

hell, green shift is not even a green shift.

[ziggy]

Liberals and overtaxation,the two go hand in hand.

Too bad they made the dollar their priority instead of the environment.
They tried to make it look like it was the environment they were concerned about but the greed comes through in their green shit package and everyone see's it for what it is. A huge cash grab.

[BlueMan]

Did taxing cigarettes make people quit smoking?
Did taxing booze make people quit drinking?
Will taxing carbon make people stop heating their house?

That is the biggest problem with the green shaft. It does NOTHING to actually lower carbon emmisions. Cap and trade is a farce too. Buying the right to pollute makes about as much sense as buying property on Mars, though fools have been talked into that scam too...