The provincial government’s Standing Committee on Finance is out on the road, hearing submissions for what should be included in the 2013-14 B.C. Budget. There have been lots of really good community groups sharing details of their work with the dozen or so MLAs. There have also been lots of suggestions of where to spend more of our tax money.

It will come as no surprise that the further away the committee is from Vancouver, the else support there is for the carbon tax. The Vancouver meeting was stacked with carbon tax supporters (and some incredibly flawed data), but hopefully the committee looks at what the rest of the province is saying. Check out the Fort Nelson and District Chamber of Commerce:

Number one is the carbon tax. B.C. was the first jurisdiction in North America to implement a carbon tax. We were sold a pilot project that the other provinces would sign on to. Unfortunately, no one has. The continuation of this carbon tax places B.C. and British Columbians at a competitive disadvantage. B.C. companies that contribute to the B.C. economy are losing jobs to non-B.C. companies that don't. That effectively encourages businesses to operate from or migrate to other provinces, which whittles down the revenue available to the B.C. government from work that's being done inside B.C. borders.

While this cascading tax is a province-wide hindrance to competitiveness, it definitely affects the Northern Rockies very significantly. We are isolated. We have little or no access to public transportation. We experience by far the longest cold season, and much of the work done here requires large equipment or long distances travelled. Since we are close to Alberta, Alberta companies are quick to exploit their unfair competitive edge over local companies — very significant issues.

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We understand this is a revenue-neutral tax and that it does go into other programs. But it comes down to the fact that it's still an unfair tax. Whether we increase taxes — that certainly isn't what I'm recommending — find that money someplace else or just adjust our programming, it's an unfair tax. It places our businesses at unfair disadvantage, particularly to Alberta.

If we can do more business in B.C. and we have more people able to operate successfully in B.C., more income tax is coming into the provincial coffers regardless. It's just an unfair tax. It's a tax that hits every element.

Of course, there’s the other side too, including the Pembina Institute, Tides Canada, Suzuki, TransLink and all the usual big tax-big spend organizations which want to both increase the carbon tax and strip away revenue neutrality. They trot out the usual garbage from the eastern “thinktanks” claiming the carbon tax has driven down fuel use and greenhouse gas emissions. Of course, that’s not true: gas sales, according to Statistics Canada, are up in B.C. And greenhouse gas emissions have fallen 4.5% in B.C.—and dropped 8% in the rest of Canada (where there is no carbon tax).