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Fix transit with carbon tax

Thank you for including Stats Canada figures in your editorial comment “Looming global energy issues behind carbon tax.”

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