Tackling carbon emissions should benefit economy: Estevan Chamber

Any sort of federally-imposed carbon pricing or carbon tax plan will hurt local businesses, especially if it doesn’t foster innovation in green technology for those businesses, according to the Estevan Chamber of Commerce.

The chamber’s executive director Jackie Wall made the comments about the soon-to-be-implemented carbon tax while speaking on 980 CJME’s Gormley Show.

Wall said members of the business community in the southeast city, “don’t believe the way to reduce (greenhouse gas) emissions is through taxation.”

She suggested it’s better for the federal government to support programs and initiatives that help businesses “reduce those emissions through innovation and grow the economy.”

Carbon capture and storage is one example she cited.

“It has captured the equivalent of up to 500,000 vehicles, and that’s up until March 2018.”

The carbon tax isn’t revenue-neutral, she added, which means businesses will be paying the carbon tax on top of the GST.

She’s aware of at least one contract that’s being held up because the customer is waiting until the tax is implemented in April, and said there is instability in her community in part because of carbon tax uncertainty.

“There’s a contract that’s up for negotiations, and as far as my understanding is, the customer is deciding to wait before they sign the contract to see how the carbon tax is going to affect the pricing,” she said.

Wall would prefer the federal government support programs like carbon capture because it would enable Saskatchewan and the country to market and sell the technology in India and other countries around the globe.

And she was resolute that Saskatchewan people’s connection to the land makes them pre-disposed to caring for it and maintaining it in order “to provide it to our next generation.”