Victoria urged to keep jacking carbon tax

Motorists could pay 50 cents more in carbon tax on every litre of gas by the end of this decade if the Pembina Institute gets its way.

The organization is recommending the provincial government steadily raise the carbon tax each year until 2020 to curb greenhouse gas emissions.

The tax, now at 3.33 cents a litre on gas ($15 per tonne of carbon emitted), is scheduled to rise on July 1 to 4.45 cents and to 6.67 cents by the summer of 2012.

But Pembina researchers argue that won't be enough.

They're calling for a further carbon tax increase of $15 to $30 per tonne of carbon emissions every year from 2013 to 2020.

That's equivalent to adding about five to six cents more to the tax every year, pushing it above 50 cents by 2020.

The move would send "an increased and longer-term price signal" that B.C. residents and businesses must cut emissions and that adoption of low-carbon technologies will save money, the institute argues.

"National carbon prices need to reach $200 per tonne by 2020 for Canada to equitably contribute to a global effort to avert dangerous climate change."

Pembina also called on the province to broaden the tax to cover industrial processes that release greenhouse gases through the manufacture aluminum or cement or by the natural gas sector.

That would address concerns about fairness, the institute said.

It also urges the B.C. government to expand low-income tax credits or emission reduction subsidies.

And it says a portion of carbon tax revenue should be invested in infrastructure like public transit to help reduce emissions.