Liberals Tax Alike
If New Brunswickers are upset over high Liberal tax increases, they better hope there is not a federal election any time soon. Since Shawn Graham was elected last year, we have seen the hidden agenda of the Liberals exposed. It has become clear that their plan is to promise “richer, greener, fairer” pastures and then fertilize them with huge tax increases.
Make no mistake about it, there is an inextricable link between the philosophy of the federal and provincial Liberals. They slander the Conservatives as mean, divisive and uncaring – as if “free” services provided by the government are ever free. It’s time that Canadians wake up and smell the roses, government programs cost taxpayers money.
In the last federal budget, the Liberals criticized the Conservative government for paying down the national debt and “mean spirited cuts” to wasteful pork that produced no tangible benefit. Since the 2007 budget they are now criticizing the Tories for using this year’s surplus to create new programs and tax cuts that benefit single moms and working families. The budget also provided $8 million in tax relief to the businesses shafted by the Graham government.
This week we saw another layer peeled away on the Liberals’ hidden agenda. While promising to work constructively on the Clean Air Act, they have hijacked the committee by voting down every initiative that would produce real results. Their new version, “The Clean Air and Climate Change Act” has ripped out most references to air pollution and replaced them with the pipe dream of reaching our Kyoto targets. After charging our “Kyoto credit card” 35% over limit, the Liberals now want to force a Conservative government to raise taxes to pay for it. A study1 published by Friends of the Earth put the cost of Canada’s Kyoto targets at $100 billion!
The Liberals also inserted M. Dion’s carbon tax scheme which forces ‘large polluters’ to pay for not meeting their Kyoto targets. Sounds good right? M. Dion’s boogey man of “energy intensive industries” comes in dead last of the top six polluters that comprise 80% of our emissions. What is first place? Electricity and heat generation (20%), then vehicle emissions (18%), oil and gas production (15%), heating of residential and commercial buildings (11%), environmental alteration (dumps and crop lands) 10%, and industry last at only 7% of our country’s emissions. What does all this mean? Huge increases in our power and heating bills, gas prices skyrocketing and food production rising to pay for M. Dion’s carbon tax on these emitters.
The Liberals think they’re being cute by saddling the Conservatives with their lack of action while pretending to “care” about the environment. Despite $4.5 billion in Conservative spending on initiatives that will start making a difference today, the Liberals still want to salvage their legacy of Kyoto failure. Canada owns only 2% of global emissions. If we shut down every GHG emitting device today, it would mean nothing globally. The Liberals want us to spend billions on hot air credits in foreign countries, billions more on carbon taxes and billions more to make up for their failed record on Kyoto.
After a Liberal private members bill passed demanding the government live up to Kyoto commitments, CBC’s The National2 did an in depth report on the protocol’s targets and declared them unrealistic and unachievable. We should definitely be doing all we can to reduce emissions, but Kyoto is not the way to go. The government has been investing heavily in preserving our natural resources, cleaning up chemicals and toxins and reducing emissions. The Conservatives believe in conservation, the Liberals believe in liberating tax dollars from your wallet.
