Dion's Carbon Tax Shell Game

The "Green Shift" Plan put forth by Dion and the Liberals is looking more and more like one of those shady carnival games (AKA Scams) where the operator puts a ball under a trio of sea-shells and challenges us to guess where it is. "Everyone's a winner!" shouts the carny.

Dion claims the tax will be revenue neutral, meaning that all the money he collects will returned as income tax breaks and incentives. Everyone's a winner. However, Paul Zed, Liberal MP, just implied that some might be more of a winner than others by saying that the tax will not apply to oil refineries in his home province of New Brunswick.

According to Zed, the refinery's emissions won't be taxed.

"The Conservatives are alleging that the Green Shift taxes (emissions). That's not true. That's the lie and the falsehood," Zed said.

"There is no tax on emissions. The Green Shift plan is not a detriment to the refinery. I wouldn't be supporting this if, for a moment, I thought the refinery was in jeopardy."

But in the Liberals own GreenShift Plan:

"Liberals will tax pollution in Canada for the first time by putting a price on Greenhouse Gas emissions that cause climate change."

According to the plan, "large final emitters (the worst polluters in Canada - mostly heavy industry and power plants) will account for a significant majority of the revenue within the Green Shift."

Oil refineries are very energy intensive. They use large quantities of fuel such as natural gas to heat the crude oil and perform various reactions on it to seperate it into the gasoline, diesel and heating fuels we use.

If the tax revenue isn't coming from major polluters (AKA large final emitters) like oil refineries, then who will end up paying for this plan?

Who knows?

Paul Zed's statement already shows that certain "chosen" industries will have preferential treatment under the Liberal carbon tax. Even if the "Green Shift" plan ends up being totally revenue neutral, some polluting industries will be given breaks, while others will be heavily taxed.

Should we trust a party which contradicts its own platform? If the Liberal tax plan changes daily depending on who in the party talks about it, how can you trust that in the end it will resemble what was voted for? Will you be a winner or loser under "the Green Shift"?

Your guess is as good as mine....


So which shell will it be? One, Two or Three? Everyone's a winner!!