Liberal MPP ‘misspoke’ over carbon tax

A Liberal candidate’s carbon tax slip-up has the party fending off accusations that the Grits intend to bring in the same kind of tax that is adding more than a nickel to every litre of gasoline sold in British Columbia.

Brant MPP Dave Levac said twice during an online live chat with Toronto Sun sister paper, the Brantford Expositor, that the provincial Liberal government is reviewing the possibility of a carbon tax.

At the end of the chat and later in an official statement, the energy minister’s parliamentary assistant corrected himself, saying he confused “carbon tax” with a “cap and trade” system.
During a stop at a cereal company in Belleville Wednesday, Premier Dalton McGuinty said he has no intention of bringing in a carbon tax.

Even his cap and trade plan, which he believes would benefit Ontario, is likely years away and would not happen if it threatened the economy, he said.

“We can’t go there right now because we have no partners, no other people who want to engage in the trading system right now,” he said. “At the end of the day, if it’s not something that serves to benefit our economy, we’re not going to do it.”

B.C.’s highly controversial carbon tax is supposed to be revenue neutral, with all money returned to businesses and individuals in tax cuts.

A carbon tax is essentially a levy on greenhouse gas emissions, while a cap and trade system sets a gradually lowered limit on emissions and allows businesses that come in under that cap to sell their polluting room to other companies. 

Levac’s online comments were greeted with barely concealed glee by Progressive Conservatives, who have been accusing the Liberals of having a secret carbon tax scheme.

“I’ve known Dave Levac for over 10 years. We’re from different parties but I like Dave Levac,” PC Leader Tim Hudak said. “I think he’s just being honest — a little too honest for the McGuinty team. There’s no doubt that Liberals want to bring in a carbon tax.”
Hudak shrugged off Levac’s denials, saying McGuinty and the Liberals twice won election campaigning on a no-tax hike platform and twice went back on that pledge once in office.

And he pointed out Liberal cabinet ministers such as Glen Murray and John Wilkinson have spoken fondly of the carbon tax proposal in the past. 

“If they love the carbon tax so much and they have so many of these guys that are cheerleading for it, just be honest with people,” Hudak said. (Source)

Cap & Trade, Carbon Tax, Eco Tax...it's not about if McGuinty will tax us, but what he'll call it and how much he'll extort from Ontario Taxpayers.
And for what?  A failed Green Utopia?  Ontario's families deserve better than radical social and environmental engineering.