OTTAWA - Canadians are more likely to support tax cuts tied to good environmental behaviour than tax cuts with no strings attached, a new poll suggests.
Decima Research asked people to choose between two hypothetical election promises - a $1,000 Conservative tax break for every household and a $1,000 Liberal break limited to households that took pro-environment action.
Fifty-one per cent of respondents said they would prefer the Liberal promise versus 28 per cent who preferred the Conservative pledge, say the survey results provided to The Canadian Press. Twenty-one per cent were unsure.
"I think what we're seeing here is a signal that's really about what kind of policies people want," Decima CEO Bruce Anderson said in an interview.
"While they appreciate the idea of tax cuts they also appreciate that policy should be increasingly directed towards achieving environmental improvement. That's what that 51 per cent are telling us they think."
Liberal Leader Stephane Dion has advocated tax breaks tied to green behaviour, such as the purchase of energy-efficient appliances or the installation of home energy generation systems.
The Conservatives have avoided any linkage between tax policy and environmental reform.
The hypothetical Liberal promise that was put to poll participants by Decima outperformed the Conservative promise in every part of the country except Alberta. In that province there was a 46 per cent versus 37 per cent preference for the no-strings option.
Nationwide, 50 per cent of men and 52 per cent of women preferred the Liberal promise. It was preferred by every age, income and education group and by urban (54 per cent) as well as rural (46 per cent) voters.
"Tying the appeal of tax cuts to improvements in environmental behaviour is an idea with clear potential," said Anderson.
The Decima results were based on a sample of 1,028 Canadians polled Jan. 4-8. The margin of error was plus or minus 2.1 per cent, 19 times out of 20.
