The Atlantic Provinces Economic Council has released a report on carbon pricing with a warning that concerns about maintaining the competitiveness of business cannot be overlooked.
Professor Chris Ragan, an Associate Professor of Economics at McGill, concedes consumers will pay more to fill up as an example, anywhere from 6 and a half to 6.7 cents a litre which then raises the question of how people will respond.
Ragan says they respond by buying more fuel efficient vehicles, drive less, use public transit more and heat their homes more efficiently but governments will have to address the effect of higher prices on low income households.
He points to the B-C model as working well with the revenue generated by a carbon tax used to lower personal and business taxes so carbon pricing didn’t turn out to be a cash grab for the provincial government.
