Here are my main concerns with this plan: 

1. By how much are the carbon taxes going to reduce emissions? In other words, are we actually going to meet our international commitments to reduce greenhouse gasses? I don’t think anyone can predict with any certainty what the actual reduction of emissions will be, which is problematic considering thats the main reason for the plan. What will happen when people, after paying all those taxes, find out Canada’s overall emissions haven’t actually decreased by a lot due to Calgary’s oil exploration? 

2. Who will pay the tax? ECO101: All taxes are paid for by the consumer in the long run. Income tax cuts are nice but there will be a large group of people (many low income families) who’s increase in income won’t offset the huge increases in energy costs due to carbon taxes and increases in oil prices. I can’t imagine they’ll be too happy about that. 

3. Most people who like carbon taxes, have previously voted for the Green party because their plan really likes carbon taxes, 5x higher to be exact. Just ask all the Green Party MP’s how well that worked out for them.

I believe that to transform Canada into a green economy, it will take (as UN reports suggest) a combination of cap-and-trade, carbon taxes and even a bit of simple regulation to clean up emissions in all segments of the market. This might mean that Canadians will have to elect another minority government in order to get a sensible compromise between all three plans if our parties can realize that you can’t play politics with environment for much longer, we could run out of time. I guess the question is, which party should be in minority government? 

UPDATE: Here are more details on the plan.