Dear Editor,
With the carbon tax going up on April 1, 2022, I thought this is an opportune time for the public to get a real look at how things are going to be soon and in the future. Pretty dismal to my eyes.
The following is a graph of the Federal Carbon Tax coming from Stats Canada and implemented by the Liberal Government.
Now anybody that is a taxpayer or small business owner will see at this pace you will never afford to heat your homes, offices, small businesses or put gasoline in your vehicle as the cost will be unobtainable.
To put this chart in a realistic value, take your natural gas consumption today which most homes between a 1000 sq. ft. and 1350 sq. ft. would use an average of 20 to 30 gigajoules (GJ) of natural gas.
Today you are using, say, 25 GJ times $2.10/GJ to make a cost of $52.20 per month in carbon taxes in the colder winter months.
Now take this same 25 GJ in 2030 times $8.94 and you are paying $223.50 per month.
This amount is without any consumption, transportation, distribution, fees and GST increases which will never happen, Right!
So that means, being conservative, your bill will be 4.25 times higher.
Take your bill, do the calculations and see the true numbers for yourself.
Now gas is going to add another 29 cents per litre, plus all the increases.
What we see nowadays is every time a bird flies over we now have a fuel shortage, threats of war, turnarounds or any other excuses the oil companies use to jack up the price.
Add this to your other commodities such as food, lumber, clothing – you name it – and you will see people in Canada in a dire case of financial woes. Yes, we have to change things but this is not the way.
Canada is located in a cold climate with long distances to travel and these things are necessities, not frills!
All governments need to get on board to a program that keeps life affordable for everyone.
Solar and wind power are two big pushes that have little to no effect on the Prairies, which is way out to lunch in costs and reliability.
Look at Medicine Hat’s solar power program and see.
The mayor was all for solar power and in 2014 the city spent $12 million on a system that was mothballed in 2019.
The reason being it was not economical to operate.
They say it will need a natural gas price of $19 to $20 per GJ to make it feasible to run.
Price out a solar or wind power system for your own home and see the costs and reliability and you will see that in most cases that it will need grid backup, and people cannot afford to install them.
Write your MLA, MP and Premier and everyone else that you can and make a difference.
I do, and talk to them, all I hear is no one’s complaining.
Come on, get real, do your part and make a difference!
Glenn Morey
Wainwright, Alta.
