The Conservative party is about to unveil new ads that will play at fuel pumps warning people about a possible new Liberal carbon tax.
"Yoo-hoo: Hello! Over here!" says one of the 15-second spots.
"(Liberal Leader) Stephane Dion said he wasn't going to introduce a carbon tax. But now he is. Yet another flip-flop."
There are three such "fuelcast" ads at the website . The ads will run in Toronto and other parts of southern Ontario, and will be accompanied by standard radio ads, t-shirts, postcards and other materials.
The ads feature what appears to be a talking smudge of oil on a gas pump, with a van in the background. But Liberal MP Jim Karygiannis said the Liberal carbon tax will not affect people at the pumps.
"We will not be taxing gasoline. There will absolutely be no tax on gas," he told Â鶹´«Ã½net.
"A carbon tax will be for the bigger polluters -- the factories and the people spewing all kinds of garbage into the air. That's where the tax would be. We'd be encouraging people to come up with cleaner alternatives. So there's fear mongering here (with the Conservative ads)."
The Liberal carbon tax has not been officially introduced. But it's supposed to be "revenue neutral" -- meaning revenue raised by the carbon tax is to be offset by accompanying cuts in income and other taxes.
Costly oil
The proposed carbon tax comes as oil prices continue to remain in record-high territory. Canadians are paying correspondingly high prices at the pumps for gasoline.
General Motors, the largest North American automaker, announced plans this week to close four plants that make sport utility vehicles and pickup trucks -- two classes of vehicles known for their poor fuel economy.
GM said sales for those vehicles are plunging in the current high gas-price environment. It thinks the high-price era is permanent. The company intends to shift production to more fuel-efficient vehicles.
It also has plans to have the Chevrolet Volt -- a plug-in electric car -- in dealers' showrooms by the end of 2010.
However, this week's cutbacks will result in a plant closure in Oshawa, Ont. that will put 2,600 people out of work, according to the Canadian Auto Workers union.
At a G8 energy ministers' meeting in Japan, concerns were raised about the effect of high oil prices on the world economy.
In this environment, anything that could be seen as raising the cost of carbon-based energy might be a tough political sell, even with the long-term threat posed by climate change. Here's where the various parties stand on the issue:
- The Green party supports a carbon tax.
- The NDP opposes such a tax, preferring a "cap-and-trade" system that would make the "big polluters" pay.
- The Conservative party touts its regulatory approach, which would make industrial emitters reduce GHG emissions by forcing them to increase the efficiency with which they use energy. However, the Tory plan doesn't contain a "hard cap" on such emissions.
Environmental activist John Bennett told CTV.ca that carbon taxes are politically difficult at any time, but people should remember they are about tax shifting, not tax increases.
"What we need to do is institutionalize the discouraging of the use of fossil fuels," he said. "Building a carbon tax, even when it's a difficult time like now, is (still) the right time to start making people pay for the pollution they create so they can make decisions that create less pollution."
