Kyoto price tag: $100,000,000,000

No, it's not a typo. It will cost $100 billion over four years for Canada to meet its Kyoto targets. Surprisingly, these weren't the opponents of Kyoto who came up with the cost estimates. The numbers came from the radical environmentalist group called "Friends of the Earth". Even they can no longer hide the fact that the "Protocols of the Learned Elders of Kyoto" are going to cost Canada tens of billions every year.

Where will the money go? What are the priorities outlined in the plan? Developing emission-free fuel cell vehicles? Constructing advanced filtering systems to make industrial emissions cleaner? Renovating our public transit and railways to provide a competitive alternative to cars and trucks? Forget it! The money will be used to purchase emission credits on the world market and to fund emission-cutting projects in the developing world. Could someone explain me why these third world environmental projects should be funded by Canadian taxpayers?

The authors of the proposal try to sugarcoat the numbers. Their CEO, Beatrice Olivastri claims it would amount to just $20 a week for an average family. Is that so? $100 billion, over 4 years for a country of 32 million, that makes it $781.25 a year or $15.02 a week per capita, not per family. An average family of 1.33 members? That's too much nonsense even for a hardcore treehugger like Olivastri. If we do the math correctly, we'll see that Kyoto is going to cost an average family some $45 to $60 a week (if not much more than that). But even if we accept their numbers - $20 a week makes $1040 a year. Why would any family want to spend that much on a program that's not going to make the air we breathe any cleaner?