A new study suggests the B.C. New Democratic Party’s climate change policies could result in significant job losses in the province.
The NDP’s commitment to a 33 per cent reduction in greenhouse gas emissions while relying on hard industry caps could mean 60,000 direct and indirect job losses by 2020, according to the study released yesterday by Simon Fraser University professor and sustainable energy policy expert Mark Jaccard.
Using a model known as the Canadian Integrated Modeling System, which evaluates the effectiveness and impact of climate change policies, Jaccard said the results revealed the NDP’s proposals to meet targets will drive up industry costs and result in high levels of layoffs.
“The cap on industry has to get tighter and tighter and the permit prices go really, really high,” he told The Hook. “That means that industries in British Columbia will have to shut down.”
NDP environment critic Shane Simpson dismissed the study, according to The Province, questioning Jaccard’s objectivity.
“He has been a critic of ours (the NDP) and I don’t believe Mr. Jaccard has an independent view on this,” Simpson reportedly said.
Jaccard, who has been a climate adviser to Premier Gordon Campbell, defended the impartiality of the research to The Hook and said he has also been critical of the B.C. Liberal Party’s policies in the past.
The New Democrats’ proposal to get rid of the Liberal’s carbon tax, which was recommitted in their recently released platform, continues to receive criticism from environmental groups.
“The NDP's platform puts climate change on the shelf to be addressed in the future, rather than building on steps already taken,” said Matt Horne, BC energy solutions director for the Pembina Institute in a statement.
“The carbon tax is already showing results.”
But NDP leader Carole James said at Thursday’s platform release that the tax is not working.
“The fuel tax isn’t effective. Fuel use actually went up last year,” she said.
While the carbon tax has received a lot of attention, George Heyman, executive director for the Sierra Club BC, cautioned against only focussing on one method for dealing with climate change.
“We need to look at the whole package,” he said, adding that there were a number of positive measures announced in the NDP platform.
“The hard emissions cap for industry is very important,” he told The Hook. “That is going to definitely bring down emissions.”
Heyman also applauded the promised lowering of transit fares and the ending of routine gas flaring by industry, which burns off unwanted gas.
The Liberals have not yet released their full election platform and Heyman said it is important for voters to look at all the environmental policies put forward by the parties.
“I think it’s important to look at their overall environmental record and their overall environmental platform,” he said.
“Many actions taken over the past eight years have run counter to many of the goals of environmental groups.”
Other environmental initiatives announced in the NDP platform include:
More funding for enforcement of environmental protections and regulations
Continued moratorium on offshore oil exploration and drilling
Pesticide ban for residential and cosmetic use
Low-interest loans to retrofit homes and businesses
Green Bond program to provide safe investment returns for green infrastructure and technology
Moratorium on new private power projects until a review of supply and demand is completed
Garrett Zehr reports for The Hook.
26
Login or register to post comments
Rod Smelser
2 years ago
Mark Jaccard: Van Sun Op-ed piece for Campbell
http://www2.canada.com/vancouversun/news/editorial/story.html?id=814cd8a7-27f3-4262-85c2-b4b00a136c1b&p=2
NDP MLA Shane Simpson is right to state that SFU Prof Mark Jaccard is not objective in his approach to anything the NDP does. The above link is to a particularly cheap and cheesy op-ed screed Jaccard wrote for the Vancouver Sun on April 10th of last year. Anyone reading it will realize that it's pure, partisan political propaganda, not the thoughts of an economic analyst.
Jaccard once served as Chair of the BC Utilities Commission when the NDP was in office. He was furious that Premier Glen Clark did not follow his recommendations for more ROR IPPs, instead favouring a natural gas fired plant on the Island. Jaccard's view that the Island plant was a bust may well have been confirmed by developments, but his intense support of private run-of-the-river projects, and his cavalier dismissal of critics of those projects, is another matter. In any event, Jaccard has a long standing personal antipathy to the NDP which is a matter of public record.
Gary Mason's piece in the Globe and Mail today was amusing in its reliance on Suzuki and Jaccard, both of who have publicly stated that they regard Carol James and the NDP as dishonest and shameful. Some of that hostility stems from federal level political developments where the staff at the Suzuki Foundation were extremely angry with Jack Layton and Nathan Cullen for not checking things out with the ENGO community (meaning themselves) before adopting a strategy on the Conservative's Clean Air bill.
These are not independent or non-partisan voices, which is fine. But for the commercial mass media, including the Globe, to present them to the public as if they were independent, non-partisan voices is an outrageous bit of either incredible sloppiness, or else intentional deception. Given that this is BC politics, I cannot imagine that anyone over the age of thirteen will have much trouble figuring out which possibility is operative.
jon doe
2 years ago
Getting rid of the carbon
Getting rid of the carbon tax is counterproductive from an environmental standpoint. Reallocate the revenues, but don't cut it. Once it's gone, it's going to be difficult to reintroduce. Now I understand why people who may have voted NDP in the past are increasingly choosing third parties.
bcliberals_suck
2 years ago
Gas Tax Shell Game
The gas/carbon tax is a joke and it is hurting many, many people around BC. It isn't just on gas for cars, people keep forgetting, or not mentioning it's applied to every gigajoule of gas to heat our homes too. My gas bill has gone up quite a bit, considering my standard of living has gone down due to the economic situation and increasing prices on everything.
For people around BC who have no choice but to drive, who live in colder climates and who actually want to warm their homes, for renters, for seniors, the gas tax is just another way this government is taking more and more money out of regular people's pockets at a time most can least afford that.
The BC Utilities Commission keeps approving increases on both Gas & Hydro. Let's not forget, Campbell's Government has installed handpicked appointees who keep increasing tax rates - taxation without representation people. And these taxes are in large part what is needed to fund the Olympics. Can't you just picture the conversation between Campbell and his lapdogs? Hey, the Olympics are gonna cost a LOT for friggin' money, how the hell can we pay for them? Oh, I know, sir, we'll get our guys on the BCUC to approve more taxes to Hydro & gas, but we'll start off slow and do it incrementally, that way people won't notice how much heat and gas will cost. Let's send cheques to the real losers at the bottom, that'll get them thinking we care about them and we might even get some votes out of it. Those stupid greens and environment fools will buy in too, because they'll think it means we care about the environment. Good plan, lets do it. Carbon tax stamped. Played to the tune of "We're in the Money" brought to you by the Gordon Campbell BC Liberal government.
Let's see an audit, where is the gas tax going? Because when I pay my bill to Terasen (a privately owned American transnational) and at the pumps, I'd like to know how that is going into environmental projects in BC.
Moonbug
2 years ago
DON'T BE A DUPE
Let's not forget that Gordo and his gang are in favour of coalbed methane extraction in the sacred headwaters and the flathead, as well as running oil tankers from Kitimat to China...
not to mention that their bullshit carbon tax doesn't apply to coal that we ship out of province to be burned and added to the atmosphere, it also doesn't apply to Gordo's flights to Hawaii, but it does apply to flights from PG to Vancouver... yeah that helps rural B.C. tons...
They have also been heavily subsidizing the oil and gas industry and want to do coastal drilling to boot!
What kind of environmental fool would think that the gas tax is anything but a red herring and yet another scheme to give tax breaks to BC's wealthy, given that gordo and his buddies are basically paying companies to dig up stuff to burn and add to our atmosphere????
Who doesn't get the point that the BEST WAY to lower emissions is to leave the hydrocarbons in the ground???
telus employee
2 years ago
Jaccard simply has no credibility
Anyone familiar with Jaccard's history knows that he is a BC Liberal and IPP shill and long ago used up any 'credibility' he had within acedemia
Jaccard has been a cheerleader for private power delivery for years and is a big fan of the BC Liberal government. In the past he has referred to Gordon Campbell as having 'courage and honesty' and praised him for his 'amazing leadership' as well as using words such as 'far-sighted' and 'brilliant' to describe the BC Liberal government.
Jaccard got paid tens of thousands of dollars to do a 'peer review' for IPPBC that slammed Calvert and Shaffer's arguments against the BC Liberal Energy Plan. It was a peer review in name only and was so subjective and ideological it has made him a laughingstock among many academics.
He is a neoclassical economist to boot, and even Greenspan is questioning the assumptions behind the largely discredited economic theory (the neoclassicalists want the government out of the markets and we all know how well that has worked)
DPL
2 years ago
The job losses under King
The job losses under King Gordo in just four months are staggering numbers. I doubt the programs put forward by the NDP could be anywhere nearly as bad.
The Libs keep promising great things but the province is sinking in debt.
jimmy_laroux
2 years ago
@ Rod Smelser
Thanks for posting Mark Jaccard's "op-ed", from which the following quote is taken:
Trust scores and the carbon tax? I mean, is this guy full of sh*t or what? I like how he claims to have won the Nobel Peace Prize. The IPCC, as a group, won the prize, not the individual members. He is as much a Nobel Laureate as I am.
Yeah, wouldn't it be nice if he submitted the ruling party's "climate plan" to similar scrutiny. What has the effect of adding 2 cents on a litre of gasoline been? How far will it go toward meeting the 33% reduction in GHG emissions by 2020? I wonder if he gets "funding" from the provincial government. I know he works for IPPs/IPPBC.
Although, if the economy continues on the same path as it's taking now, with mills and factories closing, BC's GHG emissions will surely drop in the near future. Maybe the Liberals will be able to meet their emissions targets after all :)
Rod Smelser
2 years ago
All economists are neo-classical
telus employee
He is a neoclassical economist to boot, and even Greenspan is questioning the assumptions behind the largely discredited economic theory (the neoclassicalists want the government out of the markets and we all know how well that has worked)
All economists are neo-classical, everyone except Marxists. Don't confuse Reaganomics with the very broad mainstream of economic science. Saying that someone is a neoclassical economists is like saying one is a evolutionary biologist. They all are, all except the fringe.
Rod Smelser
2 years ago
jimmy_laroux
Yeah, wouldn't it be nice if he submitted the ruling party's "climate plan" to similar scrutiny. What has the effect of adding 2 cents on a litre of gasoline been? How far will it go toward meeting the 33% reduction in GHG emissions by 2020? I wonder if he gets "funding" from the provincial government. I know he works for IPPs/IPPBC.
This is often the problem at the provincial level. Anyone with expertise is usually associated with one side or the other of the issue. Trying to find truly independent evaluations of projects and policies is damned hard, but at least the Auditor General is making some attempts.
pkelly
2 years ago
imagine that...
A BC Liberal hack dismisses an NDP policy plank...how shocking.
The BC Liberal "Carbon Tax" is not a carbon tax. Its a revenue grab that steals from you when you fill up your car's gas tank, then takes that money and lowers the income tax rates for BC's wealthiest. A real carbon tax would use that money to nudge people away from habits that are carbon intensive and encourage people shift to a lower carbon-type of lifestyle.
The BC Liberal version of the Carbon Tax is merely highway robbery...taking from working class people who cannot afford experimental hybrids and boutique cars that use no fossil fuels and giving it to Gordon Campbell's friends.
Defending this tax is even more despicable. Real environmentalists ought to be ashamed of themselves to align their names with a party that has done so much damage to our wild salmon stocks; allowed raw log exports to expand; are on record to support an end to the moratorium on drilling for oil in the northwest coast; allowed more industrial exploitation in BC's provincial parks - to name a few environmental offenses that BC's environmentalists now are linked to.
DJT
2 years ago
Jaccard is a paid Liberal
Jaccard is a paid Liberal shill. Anybody who believes more than 2 % of what comes out of his mouth might be interested in some waterfront property in New Orleans that I'm selling.
Grumpy
2 years ago
Mark Jaccard....................
................. is a 15 minute wonder given prominence by Campbell & Co. because he authored the carbon/gas tax.
I find it strange that tenured professors, who make a lot of money on speaking tours, are allowed so much ink in our media.
As with all 'Legends in their own mind', the prof. laps up Liberal attention and will do anything to please his master. The gas/carbon tax has nothing to do with the environment or global warming and has everything to do to provide a revenue stream with an out of control Gordon Campbell tax & spend government.
The global warming crowd has been utter duped by Campbell, Jaccard and the rest.
cocean
2 years ago
jon doe: "Getting rid of the
jon doe: "Getting rid of the carbon tax is counterproductive from an environmental standpoint. Reallocate the revenues, but don't cut it. Once it's gone, it's going to be difficult to reintroduce. Now I understand why people who may have voted NDP in the past are increasingly choosing third parties."
Yup. Like other decisions made by the NDP since Carole James became leader, the axe the tax campaign makes no sense, except as crass - and misguided - political opportunism.
rstillwell
2 years ago
We Need To Counter Punch Jaccard
If that 60,000 job loss figure begins to receive media attention in the interior, we could have problems.
The optics are horrible.
We need to counter punch Jaccard and the Fiberals ASAP!!
Van Isle
2 years ago
If Gordo had put all the
If Gordo had put all the carbon tax into programs to wean the general population off of carbon fuels, maybe there wouldn't such a backlash. The biggest polluter, coal, is exempt from the tax. Only the consumer will pay the tax. School boards and municapal governments pay the tax, so we the citizens pay the tax twice. All the monies go into general revenue. What type of bullshit plan is that? I cannot understand how any thinking person can be in favour of this carbon tax. And please don't cherry-pick the good points (that's what Bill Good does) because the overall plan is just plain stupid and hyprocrical considering all the other projects that are carbon consuming friendly.
Tony Martinson
2 years ago
Greens and Libs combine to hate the poor
Consumption taxes are flat taxes, which means they unfairly hit the poor. That, apparently, is a-okay to the Libs and their newfound friends, the Greens.
The Libs would see two groups paying the carbon taxes: them who can afford to pay it and them who can't afford not to.
What I find odd in all this is that the confused Greens are lining up to support private power because it doesn't emit greenhouse gases. In other words, climate change is the most important thing. If that's the case, why are they suddenly concerned about jobs? Even if Jaccard's pulled-from-his-ass numbers (he admitted to Gary Mason that it was guesswork) are right, isn't climate change the important thing?
Campbellwearsatutu
2 years ago
Mark Jaccard......
His opinion of 60 thousand job losses is hysterical.......
Vaughn Palmer called it "Breaking news" on the cutting ledge.
I of course Called Vaughn and Good on the shameless (staged radio)
Interesting that less than 24 hours after the NDP platform comes out Jaccard is dissing it!
I read the article,Jaccard states "after the NDP policies come out I rejiggered the data and came to these job loss numbers"
So overnight Jaccard "re-jiggered" ---Hilarious because.....
What is the NDP Policy?
The NDP policy is to go to a cap n trade----
Cap n trade is.......Capping emissions,trading emissions,buying and selling of carbon offsets,polluters pay or sell credits........
But for those not paying attention,last spring,in the BC legislature,Gordon Campbell and the BC Liberals............
Signed on to a ....CAP n TRADE policy of their own!
The cap n trade Campbell signed onto has no imformation out yet but.....Campbell signed on with.......
Montana,Oregon,Allberta,Saskatchewan,Manitoba,..............
So let me see if I have this straight.....
NDP Cap n Trade will cost jobs! --BC Liberal Cap n Trade won`t cost jobs?---
Jaccard states " for a carbon tax to be successful it would have to be 10 to 20 times what are carbon tax presently is"
How many jobs would Jaccards 1.80 per litre fuel cost us?
Jaccard has zero credibility,especially since he has seem to forgotten Gordon Campbell already signed us onto a Cap n Trade system!
Cheers- EYES WIDE OPEN
Campbellwearsatutu
2 years ago
BC Liberals ........
Jaccard is a Jackass---no crediblity,none,zero,.........
Jaccard should try to keep up with his hero Gordon Campbell.......
Jaccard forgot about Campbell`s Cap n Trade.........
Here is the link
http://www.bcliberals.com/news/enviroment/bc_first_province_to_legislate_cap_&_trade
Any credibilty Jaccard once had is gone,the man is not MENTALLY FIT to TEACH
Campbellwearsatutu
2 years ago
Sorry about that above link
I try again.......
BC Liberal Cap n Trade
http://www.bcliberals.com/news/enviroment/b.c._first_province_to_legislate_cap_&_trade
munroe
2 years ago
At the rate that jobs are
At the rate that jobs are being lost in this "Campbell Contraction" of the economy, there may not be 60,000 jobs left!
jimmy_laroux
2 years ago
What a shock...
Mark Jaccard is paid by the government after all:
http://www2.news.gov.bc.ca/news_releases_2005-2009/2007OTP0180-001488.htm
Frank
2 years ago
Rod
"All economists are neo-classical, everyone except Marxists."
That's not true. Keynesians are not referred to as neo-classical nor as Marxists.
Frank
2 years ago
cocean and jon doe
With environmentalists like you guys its no wonder habitat is being wiped out, species are going extinct and gasoline use went up.
Frank
2 years ago
1974
Apparently Marc Jaccard is unaware of the job losses in America following a rise in the price of gas due to OPEC being upset.
Its good to know that Mr Jaccard believes a rise in the price of energy will have no effect in a modern industrial economy but unfortunately he hasn't convinced many economists of that "fact".
VancouverPointGreen
2 years ago
Only 1 viable choice
GREEN. Take the high road to recovery with support for a STRONG green economy and a worthy opposition that does not simply negatively oppose, but encourages innovation and creativity. Platform here: http://tinyurl.com/d386j9
Krispy
2 years ago
Study: Bought & paid for by Campbell Liberals
Mark Jaccard has lost any shred of credibility he may have left as an environmental commentator, after taking a paid advisory position with the Campbell Liberals. These are the guys who de-regulated environmental protection and forestry in this province, by giving industry the 'responsiblity' of monitoring itself.
They cut funding for monitoring and enforcement on a broad range of environmental regulations, and forbade their inspectors from taking enforcement action, unless a formal complaint was filed.
At the same time, they gave billion dollar subsidies to the oil and gas industry, and allowed them to cut roads and drill for oil in provincial parks. They have also stated that they are in favour of off-shore oil drilling - in the most sensitive underwater seismic region in North America.
I haven't seen Jaccard make one public statement contradicting the Campbell Liberals' decision to spend $3.5 billion to build a 10-lane bridge to replace the Port Mann -- a move that will increase carbon emissions through a massive increase in commuter vehicle travel on the Lower Mainland, and by promoting rapid urban sprawl in the Fraser Valley.
The Pembina Institute is based in Alberta, and knows nothing about BC. Campbell's gas tax has done nothing to discourage consumption of fossil fuels. There was virtually no reduction in consumption when gas went above $1.50 per litre.
7.5 cents a litre will do nothing except transfer the tax burden onto the middle and lower income levels, so that Campbell can pay for his massive tax breaks for the wealthiest 2 per cent of wage earners.