Tag Archives: BC carbon tax

Cost of Climate Change

BC made small gains on emissions — but the province is scrapping climate measures

Canada’s National Observer, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

British Columbia’s modest climate gains are at risk after a wave of policy clawbacks this past year. 

According to the province’s recent accountability report — which reflects BC’s climate data on a two-year lag — carbon pollution declined by four per cent in 2023, meaning emissions are now 9 per cent below the 2007 baseline. 

The province has also nearly halved methane emissions in the oil and gas sector from 2014, meeting this year’s target two years early. 

However, many climate measures that are just beginning to bear fruit, or will soon — such as the consumer carbon tax, electric vehicle rebates and sales mandates and net-zero requirements for liquified natural gas (LNG) projects — have been pruned back or chopped entirely in 2025. What’s more, the province scrapped the promised oil and gas sector emissions cap and never delivered a clean transportation plan although fossil fuel vehicles continue to account for 41 per cent of the BC’s carbon pollution. 

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Transportation

Ottawa’s weak EV targets could stall BC’s transition

Canada’s National Observer, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter 

BC is squandering its electric vehicle advantage by rolling back ambitious targets to match Ottawa’s slower pace, experts warn.

It’s “counterintuitive” for BC — which still commands a zero-emission electric vehicle (ZEV) market share of nearly 20 per cent even during a sluggish sales year — to yoke itself to national targets that accommodate slower markets like Saskatchewan, said Richard Ivity, board chair of the national Electric Vehicle Society.

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Politics

NDP Candidate Tanillle Johnson Visits Cortes Island

NDP candidate Tanille Johnson recently visited Cortes Island, where 20 people were waiting to see her in the Pioneer Room at Mansons Hall. The event was sponsored by Cortes Island’s Climate Action Network, which also provided lunch. 

Johnson said she prefers small meetings like this,  “I’ve been spending most of my time going to people’s houses, meeting with their friends,  I like to think that I’m a very truthful, honest person and I actually care about what happens in this riding. It means a lot to me, like my family, generations and generations, lived here.”

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Politics

Greens could be tie-breakers on B.C. climate policy

By Natasha Bulowski, Canada’s National Observer, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

If the BC Greens end up with the balance of power in British Columbia and choose to support the NDP, they are likely to push hard on two main climate policy issues — the consumer carbon price and liquid natural gas expansion. 

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Politics

Some climate information for BC voters

By Barry Saxifrage

BC’s election is coming up. I’m climate-concerned voter, deeply concerned about the increasingly destructive climate future we are leaving to our kids and to all future Canadian generations. I still haven’t decided how I’m going to best vote for climate hope. So, I’m not writing to offer any recommendations on who to vote for. Instead, I’m writing to offer some basic information about BC’s emissions.

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