Dear editor,
I enjoyed reading Phil Harrison’s commentary (Carbon tax is unfair to low income earners) in the Letters to the Editor section of the Feb. 3 edition of the Comox Valley Record. Predicated on his Fortis BC monthly gas bill, Phil compared the cost of the carbon tax ($15.39) against his actual consumption cost of natural gas ($22.18). The resulting percentage was exactly the same as mine at 69 per cent, which seems unreasonably high.
As Phil points out, it is a hardship to stay warm for low income earners who find additional taxes economically painful. You can only turn the thermostat down so much and for so long during this Arctic vortex weather pattern we are experiencing.
I do applaud Fortis BC for separating out all of the cost components that make up our monthly bill. What I find untenable is the federal five per cent GST being applied to each of the cost components including the federal carbon tax. Somehow this just does not sit well with me – the federal government applying a tax on their own tax. It is much appreciated that our provincial government doesn’t apply a penny for PST on natural gas use (only on commercial use). I am going to write the MP for our region, Rachel Blaney. Rachel is such a strong advocate for tackling the high costs of living and perhaps may challenge this tax anomaly.
Kerry Scarsbrook,
Comox