VANCOUVER: The Canadian Taxpayers Federation (CTF) reacted with skepticism today with the receipt of the $100 climate action bribe from the government.

"The government sends our money back to us to keep us quiet about the carbon tax, charges us to do it, and we're supposed to feel good about it " said Maureen Bader, B.C. Director of the CTF. "$100 will do little to help families whose cost of living has already increased with the skyrocketing price of gasoline."

The government took $440 million from the 2007 surplus to fund the cheques, and an additional $10 million to pay Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) to administer and mail the cheques out.

"Instead using the surplus to fund political trickery, use it to cut taxes permanently and to reduce the provinces debt, which costs taxpayers $6 million per day in interest," said Bader. "B.C.'s across-the-board tax cuts of 2001 set B.C. on the growth path we're benefiting from today - the carbon tax is a step in the wrong direction."

The government claims personal and business income tax cuts will make the carbon tax revenue neutral, but as the full effect of the income tax cuts will not be felt right away, the $100 refund is intended to help people assume the low carbon lifestyle now.

"The last time Canadians were hit with a so-called revenue neutral tax, it was called the GST," said Bader. "The GST brought in billions of dollars in new revenue for the federal government - it was a tax grab, just as the carbon tax will be."

"The latest polls show people are rejecting the government's carbon tax," continued Bader. "The government's own figures show the carbon tax will do little to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and the high price of gasoline has provided a glimpse of just how much the government's jump onto the global-warming bandwagon will cost families in B.C."