- Building  a  Fair  and  Effective  Carbon  Tax  to  Meet  BC’s  Greenhouse  Gas

CCPA-BC_Carbon-tax-review-submission       Building  a  Fair  and  Effective  Carbon  Tax  to  Meet  BC’s  Greenhouse  Gas   Targets     Marc  Lee,  Co- ‐Director,  Climate  Justice  Project     Canadian  Centre  for  Policy  Alternatives     Submission  to  the  BC  Carbon  Tax  Review   Attention:  Minister  of  Finance     August  2012       BC’s  Carbon  Tax  Review  comes  at  a  time  when  . [...]       A  well- ‐designed  carbon  tax  can  be  the  engine  of  a  “green  industrial  revolution”  –  it  can  propel   climate  action  from  public  and  private  sectors  because  it  both  raises  the  cost  of  emitting  carbon   dioxide  and  other  greenhouse  gases,  and  provides  the  revenues  needed  to  make  public   investments  that  reinforce  climate  action. [...]     Recommendation  3:  Reform  the  Climate  Action  Credit     A  key  equity  challenge  is  that  taxes  on  consumption  like  the  carbon  tax  are  regressive  in  their   distribution  –  lower- ‐income  households  pay  a  larger  share  of  their  income  to  the  tax,  even   CCPA- ‐BC  Carbon  tax  review  submission,  August  2012   2 though  they  have  the  smallest  carbon  footpri. [...]     Table:  A  carbon  tax  scenario  of  $50  per  tonne  in  2016   Low- ‐income   Carbon  tax  per   credit  per     household   household   Net  carbon  tax   Bottom  10%   $372   $770   $(398)   D2   $537   $770   $(233)   D3   $765   $904   $(139)   D4   $815   $918   $(103)   D5   $951   $974   $(23)   D6   $1,120   $604   $516   D7   $1,180   $383   $797   D8   $1,444   $162   $1,282   D9. [...]             Marc  Lee  is  a  Senior  Economist  with  the  BC  Office  of  the  Canadian  Centre  for  Policy  Alternatives,   and  the  Co- ‐Director  of  the  Climate  Justice  Project.