By Tiffany Goodwein

Local MP candidates talk carbon tax at S.E.N.S all candidates Forum

Sep 27, 2019 | 5:30 AM

It was nearly a packed house at the Schubert Center as Local federal MP candidates squared off at an all candidates forum organized by the Sustainable Environment Network Society.

One of the first hot topics of discussion was whether to keep or scrap the federal carbon tax.

MP Mel Arnold- Conservative Party

“The Carbon Tax will simply penalize the most vulnerable people in Canada the most. Those who can least afford to pay extra taxes. We know that it is going to drive up the price of fuel, but we also have also heard the Liberal Party has plans to increase it by up to five times what it is bringing gasoline and diesel prices up over $2.00 a litre that will drive the cost of food up on everyone’s table.”

Cindy Derkaz Liberal Candidate:

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“The carbon tax is a very essential part of the battle on climate action and the price on pollution is a big part of that. We have a choice here to either elect a Liberal or Conservative government and I’m saying we better think that through very carefully.”

“It was the B.C Liberals in 2008 that actually introduced the carbon tax in British Columbia and we are the model that the Canadian Carbon Tax has been modeled on. So kudos to Gordon Campbell and the B.C Liberal Party. I just do not understand where this got lost because B.C. has had a very strong economy, one of the best in Canada consistently since introducing the Carbon Tax.”

Harwinder Sandhu NDP Candidate:

“We are going to keep the Carbon Tax. It is one way to fight climate action change. It is a lot of mis-information and if you really sit down and do the math it’s really not that bad. If you even ask people who are opposing the carbon tax they don’t even know how much they pay. And we are not only keeping the Carbon Tax but high polluters will be held accountable and they will need to pay a little more.”

Marc Reinarz Green Party Candidate:

“I have to call out some misinformation. If we look at for instance the price in B.C. how much did the carbon tax go up on the first of January? Does anybody know? One cent, one lousy cent. How much did the fuel price go up? 42 cents on the coast, 25 cents here. We export oil from August last year to May this year at 600,000 barrels a day to the U.S. at a loss on average of $13 per barrel. In October it was a loss of $20 a barrel. Count your losses. “

Kyle Delfing PPC party

PPC Candidate Kyle Delfing stated that his party is against the Carbon Tax.

“We are not looking to use carbon taxes as our tool. We are looking to enrich every Canadian with our economic policies to raise their GDP so that you can make the better choices, you can get the better appliances, the better cars build energy efficient homes because that all costs money and we believe that debt isn’t the solution to getting rid of climate change. Debt can be detrimental to Canadians over time.”

The federal election takes place on Oct. 21, 2019.

by Tiffany Goodwein

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