Thank you for including Stats Canada figures in your editorial comment “Looming global energy issues behind carbon tax” (February 2/11).
Those stats, informing us that “consumption of gasoline held relatively steady since 2008, and increased in 2010,” are important. They indicate that economic realities – leaner times in 2008 giving way to a more vigorous economy in 2010 – are a much stronger influence on the use of fossil fuels than is the carbon tax.
Even though I am concerned about the effects of both pollution and climate change, a supposedly “revenue neutral” system that simply transfers tax dollars from one source to another makes neither economic nor environmental sense.
Instead I support the editorial’s suggestion that carbon tax revenue be directed to “transit and other transportation alternatives.” Why that was not done right from the very beginning is a mystery – is it possible that some of the lucrative carbon tax has found its way into the fiscally-challenged general revenue fund?
Regina Dalton