People are balking at the latest increase to natural gas prices due to the Carbon Tax and while the jump to $1.50 per gigajoule is not a surprise, to see it in conjunction with the cost of natural gas is bound to ignite some anger.
People are balking at the latest increase to natural gas prices due to the Carbon Tax and while the jump to $1.50 per gigajoule is not a surprise, to see it in conjunction with the cost of natural gas is bound to ignite some anger.
The jump is causing people to burn through social media condemning the increase and it is by no means a surprise, an increase amounting to 75 per cent of a commodity's cost because of a tax is outrageous no matter how you shake it. Throw in the seven cents per litre of gasoline and people are fuming.
But does the increase mean families are going to be shivering in the corner of their homes huddled under a blanket for warmth? Likely not. For the average Canadian Home, the tax increase will mean about $22 more a month for fuel costs - natural gas and gasoline included.
Unfortunately, the carbon tax is not just levied on natural gas. It is applied to fuel and indirectly to groceries and other commodities, which means families are shelling out more in multiple areas to satisfy the hunger of a single tax.
If you checkout the government's carbon tax calculator you can get a rough idea of how much you might be spending on the carbon tax and how much you will receive back in rebates.
While it is hard to say what an average family is, according to the calculator, a family of four earning $95,0000 annually, using 10Gj of natural gas per month - the provincial average - 250 litres of gasoline per month, and $800 a month for groceries, will spend $324 a year in carbon taxes. The calculator supposedly factors for other indirect costs from the purchase of other goods and services.
That's the bad news.
The good news, according to the calculator, is that same family will receive $495 worth of rebates between January 2017 and January 2018 and morelater in 2018 as rebates increase. In other words, this family is making almost $200 a year off the carbon tax.
That means the tax is directed at the wealthier of country, whom are apparently those earning above 47,500 a year as an individual or 95,000 as a family. Those income brackets receive partial rebates up to around $55,000 and $109,000 per year when they begin seeing no rebates.
That shows how out of touch with reality this government is if it believes with the present cost of living Albertans at those income thresholds are wealthy and can actually afford to pay more in taxes.
While the average $27 a month might not seem like a lot, add it to the $5 per month in potential new municipal taxes, or the few dollars businesses have had to increase prices to accommodate the jump in minimum wage and the costs begin to add up.
It's a harder pill to swallow when looking at government salaries, which for years have ballooned while many in the private sector haven't seen much of a raise in years.
If the government wants to redistribute wealth, as the Carbon Tax seems to do, it should start with the millions it pays to senior bureaucrats. Their salaries have skyrocketed over the past 10 years as this province rode the lavish wave of oil prices.
Now that those good times are over, the average citizen is being forced to ensure bureaucrats do not lose lifestyles they should not have as public employees.
Out of control salaries might not be the NDP's fault, but they sure haven't done much to fix it.
If the government needs to find more money to meet its obligations, it must start by spending less. That doesn't necessarily mean losing services either. There is no reason any civic employee should be making more than $300,000 as a base salary when the average Albertan only earns $42,500. Even a 10 per cent decrease to every government employee earning more than $120,000 would result in approximately $100 million in savings according to the Sunshine List.
Take the money out of your own house first before coming to ours.
