The heartland needs to hush up!

With the workings of participatory democracy now on a summer vacation, it seems that the Liberal government of Gordon Campbell isn't inclined to be bothered by the troublesome outposts of the province.

Last week the Globe and Mail provided an interesting account of the reaction to plans by a Central Interior community to protest the planned Carbon tax initiative portion of the Climate action program that comes into effect on July 1st in BC.

The Globe reported last week that "Scott Nelson, mayor of Williams Lake, was planning to urge his council to back a motion this week that would have seen the municipality refuse to pay the carbon tax on its municipal fuel bills in order to highlight concerns that the tax is unfair to northerners, and not revenue-neutral for municipalities."

Those plans received a cold reception from the Campbell Liberals, when none other than Finance Minister Carole Taylor picked up the phone and delivered a blunt assessment of her and the government's impressions of the planned protest.

While it's interesting to note that Nelson calls himself a staunch supporter of the Liberals and of Premier Campbell, he was certainly reflecting a strong surge of opposition to the Campbell plans, where rural British Columbian's suggest that they are being unduly punished because of Campbell's project, unable to take advantage of the benefits of the lower mainland and its access to mass transit and other alternatives to what the government calls a neutral tax.

Nelson's about face caught a few fellow politicians unaware, many of whom were ready to pick up the challenge of turning the Provincial government around on their dogmatic approach to environmental concerns at the expense of rural residents.

It does suggest that there will be some serious fence mending required of Campbell by the time the next election takes place, with or without public protest there is clearly a disconnect on the issue between the provincial government and those that live outside of Metropolitan Vancouver and Victoria.

And while hitting the local politicians hard with "blunt talk", may quiet down the controversy, it most likely won't in the long term prevent a public backlash from those that are most affected...

B.C. mayor quashes carbon-tax protest plan
IAN BAILEY
From Monday's Globe and Mail
May 25, 2008 at 9:18 PM EDT

VANCOUVER — A “blunt” telephone conversation with B.C. Finance Minister Carole Taylor has cooled plans by a northern B.C. mayor to launch a revolt over the groundbreaking carbon tax.
Scott Nelson, mayor of Williams Lake, was planning to urge his council to back a motion this week that would have seen the municipality refuse to pay the carbon tax on its municipal fuel bills in order to highlight concerns that the tax is unfair to northerners, and not revenue-neutral for municipalities.

Williams Lake is estimating it will pay $75,000 a year in extra costs related to the carbon tax.
But Mr. Nelson said he is backing down after a 25-minute chat with Ms. Taylor in which it appears she made it clear the tax was going ahead without concessions for northerners.

“She was pretty blunt, pretty to the point. They're moving ahead,” Mr. Nelson said in an interview.

He may be backing down, but the leader in the community of about 12,000 people did not sound happy about the situation.

“[They] recognize there may be potential discrepancies across the province, but they want to move forward with it,” he said.

“They're moving ahead regardless of any outcries from any municipalities, any regional districts, any hospital boards, any taxpayers.”

He said there appears to be no way to move Victoria. “If the door is partly cracked, you can tend to put your foot through a little bit,” he said.

“[This] door is so tight. And the shackles … they have thrown the keys away and said, ‘We're moving forward.' ”

B.C. is the first jurisdiction in North America to have a carbon tax – a levy on fossil fuels to encourage people to cut their consumption.

Once it takes effect on July 1, it will start at a $10-per-tonne levy on carbon, which works out to 2.41 cents per litre of gasoline. It will rise by $5 per year over the next four years.

The tax is to be revenue-neutral, which means it will be returned to British Columbians through tax breaks. There is also to be a $100-per-adult Climate Action Credit to offset its impact.

Some municipalities say the revenue-neutral promise won't work for local governments.

Northerners have also said the tax is unfair because they consume more fuel than those in the south due to a colder climate, fewer public-transit options and the need to drive more.

Mr. Nelson said he called the minister for a chat. Telephone tag ensued, and the pair eventually connected.

Ms. Taylor declined to get into details about what she told Mr. Nelson, who has described himself as an enthusiastic supporter of Premier Gordon Campbell and the Liberal government, and also supportive of dealing with climate change, but wary about the fine points of the carbon tax.

But she noted the Liberal government is committed to offering municipalities funds to help them meet the costs of changing to reduce their demand for energy thus mitigating carbon-tax bills.
“From the government's point of view, we have set out an agenda that says we are going to reduce carbon emissions by a third by 2020, and one tool that we have is to price carbon, and it will be brought in on all carbon-emitting fuels in the province, and there won't be any exemptions,” she said.

“The Premier has made that quite clear.”

Ms. Taylor said her door is open for conversations with any mayors on the issue.

Mr. Nelson was proposing to divert funds for carbon-tax payment into a savings account until the province could prove the tax was revenue-neutral – an idea that won some support elsewhere in the north.

Seven resolutions raising concerns about the tax were melded into one package resolution and moved with massive support at this month's meeting in Prince George of the North Central Municipal Association, representing about 40 northern municipalities.

Mr. Campbell gave a keynote speech at the gathering, but made no reference to the resolutions that came a day before his appearance.

Mr. Nelson called the Premier's omission “extraordinarily bold” and “brazen.”

“The most contentious issue in the north and it wasn't even spoken about in his speech.”
Mr. Nelson said it did not appear the NCMA resolutions caught government attention, but his proposed protest did.

Some of his allies were caught off-guard. Nate Bello, the mayor of Quesnel, had offered initial support for Mr. Nelson's protest, but waited for written details he could discuss with his own council.

Jon Wolbers, a Williams Lake councillor who is also chairman of the Cariboo Regional District representing four regional communities, was also ready to back Mr. Nelson.

“I thought it was a pretty good idea. I didn't realize he had backed down,” he said. “The bottom line is still that it's not a neutral tax. It's still a cause for concern.”

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Nelson later provided a Question and Answer session for Globe readers to discuss the carbon tax issue further, a transcript of which can be found here.