I deposited my $100 Climate Action Plan cheque in the bank machine while grocery shopping today. It's sort of an initial bribe from the government due to the upcoming carbon tax which is being implemented in British Columbia. It doesn't make a whole hell of a lot of sense to try to combat fossil fuel use as a single province alone. For example, it may prompt me to travel more frequently to Bellingham, Washington as while there we could fill up much more cheaply. In the long run that means I'll burn a little more petrol.
We've never had really cheap gas here but this will add an extra 2.4 cents a liter. It comes into effect on July 1st, so I wanted to buy gas today. I filled up at $1.464 but I saw many stations selling at $1.495 a liter. These prices are the equivalent to about $5.50 a US gallon. Starting on Canada Day, the tax will likely push up the price past the psychological $1.50 per liter mark. In subsequent years increases will automatically kick in.
An interesting thing about our extra fees is they're supposed to be revenue neutral. It's not simply an additional tax grab. Although it will cause inflationary pressures, being that we aren't big consumers, we'll probably be better off financially. Reduced provincial income taxes should leave us ahead of the game. To celebrate, when visiting downtown Vancouver today, we took the SkyTrain. We did this more for its convenience than a desire to be eco-friendly though.