Free Kyoto? Forget it!

As the polls find, most Canadians support Kyoto. The same polls show that people's support doesn't mean Canadians are ready to pay for reaching Kyoto targets. Majority of those supporting Kyoto want to have it for free.

According to the Angus Reid Strategies poll released few weeks ago, 64% believe Canada should live up to its Kyoto commitment. Yet only 29% would accept a 25c per litre gas tax hike to help reduce emissions. Well, how about a 60c per litre increase in gasoline prices? That will be the price to pay for implementing Kyoto. I bet if the pollsters mentioned 60c per litre as proposed gas price hike, plus a 50% hydro rate increase as well as doubling the price of the natural gas - the number of supporters wouldn't even be in double digits.

The Honourable John Baird, Minister of the Environment tabled a detailed economic impact report called "The Cost of Bill C-288 to Canadian Families and Business" before the Senate committee that studies the bill. The study forecasts immediate and far-reaching impacts on Canadians and the economy including:
• 275,000 Canadians would lose their job by 2009.
• The cost of electricity bills would jump 50% after 2010.
• The cost of filling up a car would jump 60%.
• The cost of heating a home by natural gas would double.

In brief - Canada cannot reach its 2008 to 2012 Kyoto targets, as required under Bill C-288, without intentionally manufacturing an economic recession. Not just any recession but the worst recession since World War II. The GDP will decline by over 6.5% (compared to 4.9% decline in 1981-82). Families will face a reduction in personal disposal income of about $4,000. In actual dollars, the economy would lose $51 billion ($51,000,000,000) in 2008 alone.

Too bad the pollsters didn't have these numbers while asking Canadians to share their opinion on Kyoto. Too bad they couldn't show them this chart so people could see that even if Canada makes 2008 the worst year since the Great Depression to achieve Kyoto targets - that will have absolutely no effect on the environment; that Kyoto-exempt developing countries add much more emissions than Canada could ever cut. If all that information was widely available - we wouldn't have one in three Canadians completely unaware that the protocols of the learned elders of Kyoto come with $50 billion a year price tag.