Technology, not tax, should be focus of carbon reduction strategy, Canadian Taxpayers Federation says

The Canadian Taxpayers Federation (CTF) claimed on Thursday that carbon pricing doesn't reduce carbon emissions.

The group held a media event in Saskatoon to bring attention to the plan before rebates go out to Saskatchewan families on Friday.

"The Trudeau carbon tax is not an environmental plan, it's a tax plan," CTF Prairie Director Robin Speer said in an email to CTV News.

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Speer said British Columbia has had the highest carbon pricing in Canada for years and yet emissions have increased there. Emissions also increased in Canada in the first year of federal carbon pricing, Speer said.

"The government should create an environment so we can see businesses invest in technology to drive down emissions."

Speer said the Canadian agriculture sector has seen "huge successes" in reducing emissions with no-till farming, while enhanced oil recovery in the energy industry has led to more carbon being sequestered and a significant reduction in emissions.

"So we should also find ways to export that technology to help others around the world reduce their emissions, which in many cases are much higher than in Canada."

The CTF also shone a spotlight on a March 24 report from the Parliamentary Budget Officer which found that when including the loss in inflation-adjusted employment and investment income due to carbon pricing, carbon costs will exceed rebates in 2030-31. Under this model, carbon pricing would then cost the average Saskatchewan family $1,464.

That report did not account for the economic and environmental costs of climate change. It also found that when looking only at the carbon levy and related GST paid minus the rebate received, the average Saskatchewan family would be $495 in the black.

A 2013 study by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development found that carbon taxes and emission trading systems are the most cost-effective means of reducing carbon dioxide emissions and should be at the centre of government efforts to tackle climate change.

Last year, the World Economic Forum held up British Columbia as having a "textbook example" of a carbon tax, saying it has been successful in significantly reducing greenhouse gas emissions without compromising economic growth and development.