Thursday, February 21, 2008

Is Gordon Campbell really serious about global warming or just warming up to voters by melting the ice cap on his once-frigid political image?

That's the question hanging out there after this week's muddled and confusing budget sent out so many contradictory messages when it comes to the premier's pet issue of climate change. Consider:

DRIVE OR DON'T DRIVE: Tuesday's budget brought in a carbon tax on diesel and gasoline that will be particularly brutal on British Columbia's trucking industry.

The government apparently wants people to drive less, but truckers don't have that option: They either drive or they don't work. The carbon tax is not "revenue neutral" to this industry, so crucial to British Columbia's economy.

But at the same time Campbell is hammering truckers with a gas tax, his government is spending billions of dollars on expanded highways and bridges, supposedly to help the same industry expand and flourish.

So which is it, premier: drive or don't drive? The government doesn't seem sure.

TAKE THE TRAIN -- OR NOT: Campbell wants commuters to get out of their cars and take public transit. But while the government played the role of planet-savers on Tuesday with $1.8 billion worth of carbon taxes, the same budget pledged just $2 million toward rapid rail transit this year.

If Campbell is serious about getting drivers to switch to transit, he must supply fast, comfortable and efficient transit options first.

OIL AND GAS: British Columbia's oil-and-gas sector is one of the province's most energy-intensive industries and a major emitter of greenhouse gases. It will be punished by the carbon taxes in Tuesday's budget.

But that same budget increases tax credits and subsidies to the oil-and-gas sector as an encouragement to expand its operations in B.C. What a contradiction!

GOOD NEIGHBOUR POLICY: While British Columbia goes it alone in cutting greenhouse gases, neighbouring Alberta is planning to allow emissions to increase as it develops the oilsands.

If climate change poses the planetary disaster that we have been told, you'd think Campbell would be publicly pleading with Alberta Premier Ed Stelmach to join his crusade.

Instead, Campbell refuses to comment on what other provinces and the federal government are doing -- or not doing -- on the issue.

Put all of these inconsistencies and contradictions together and you have a picture of a B.C. government that cares more about domestic politics than the actual "crisis" of global warming.

Campbell saw how Arnold Schwarzenegger parlayed the issue into an unlikely second term in the California governor's mansion.

Now we're seeing Campbell try the same sound-and-light show here.

It will probably get him re-elected -- just like Ah-nuld -- but it will damage the British Columbia economy in the process.

msmyth@direct.ca

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