HARPER PLAN IMPOSES QUASI-CRIMINAL SANCTIONS
Critics of Stephane Dion’s Green Tax Shift plan conveniently fail to mention that Stephen Harper has his own plan to fight greenhouse gas emissions. It’s called Turning the Corner. You can look it up at www.ec.gc.ca.
Rather than just attacking Mr. Dion, the critics need to compare the two plans.
The Conservative approach relies heavily on government regulations intruding into private enterprise – which business leaders hate.
Mr. Harper’s regulations – if they’re going to be effective in tackling carbon emissions – will drive-up operating costs across the economy. The Conservatives admit as much in the fine print on their Website.
But unlike Mr. Dion’s proposal, the Conservatives provide no tax cuts or other offsets to cushion the impact of the higher prices they will cause.
Furthermore, it will take a small army of new bureaucrats to design, administer and enforce the Harper regulations. And the enforcement mechanism he has in mind is quasi-criminal sanctions like fines and imprisonment.
In Saskatchewan, Mr. Harper’s greenhouse gas regulations will hit the entire oil and gas sector, as well as IPSCO steel, the Potash Corporation, cement companies, chemical producers and many others -- including utilities, like SaskPower and SaskEnergy.
Wait a minute!
Are the Harper Conservatives threatening criminal penalties against provincial Crown Corporations. Premier Wall may want to put Saskatchewan’s constitutional lawyers on red-alert.
Those who find it so easy to throw stones at Stephane Dion should keep a closer eye on Stephen Harper.
As pointed out by distinguished, independent, western experts like Jack Mintz at the University of Calgary and Mark Jaccard of Simon Fraser University, the Harper government has not been honest or straight-forward in its propaganda around these issues.
According to Dr. Mintz, under the Conservative plan, “Canadians could be faced with brownouts, high fuel costs and lost jobs”.
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