Northern Premiers and Inuit Reject the Dion Tax Trick

June 30, 2008

Few people better understand the challenges of living in a fragile environment or coping with a high cost of living than the Canadians living in Canada’s Northern Territories.

That is why it was not surprising when, during a weekend summit, the Premiers of all three of Canada’s Northern Territories came out opposed to Stéphane Dion’s plan to impose a permanent new carbon tax that will drive up the cost of gas, electricity and everything else.

“To add on a cost to very high fuel costs already is just not an option for homeowners in our territory,” Nunavut Premier Paul Okalik explained. (National Post, June 30, 2008).

In opposing the Dion Tax Trick, Premier Okalik, Yukon Premier Dennis Fentie, and Northwest Territories Premier Floyd Roland add their names to a growing chorus of voices who oppose Mr. Dion’s plan to increase taxes, drive up the cost of living, and threaten thousands of jobs without the guarantee of any environmental benefit in return.

Already, the Governments of Saskatchewan, Alberta and Nova Scotia have spoken out against Mr. Dion’s Tax Trick. These concerns are reflected in a chorus of opposition from small business owners, truckers, manufacturers, environmental and tax policy experts and, of course, everyday Canadian families themselves.

When politicians without priorities start calling for higher taxes, it should come as no surprise that Canadians are suspicious. Mr. Dion cannot guarantee any environmental benefits from his tax trick. His flimsy attempt to claim “revenue neutrality” has already been exposed as well. Mr. Dion has already been forced to concede that gas prices will go up under his plan. Now it is his turn to admit that his plan will hit some of Canada’s most vulnerable regions the hardest of all.

The Dion Tax Trick. Everybody sees through it.