CARbon tax

So as of July 1st, BC will be the first jurisdiction in Canada to have a tax on automobiles. Yes, we're being taxed to force us to go green. The whole province. The details look like this: We're all getting a $100 dividend in March. The idea here is that it's meant to jump start us on the taxes, cause not only are our cars being taxed, but our fuel is now being additionally taxed by 2.4%. Yeah, we don't already have the most expensive gas in Canada...let's tax it more.

The whole idea about this tax is to get us out of our cars, and thinking more environmentally. There are 3 major flaws to this new green regime:

1) British Columbia is more than the Lower Mainland. It's actually a REALLY fricking big place. See?



It's big, mountainous, and spans a ridiculously large degree of both latitude and longitude. It has many many many many many many...many trees, lots of resources to feed primary industries (water, minerals, animals, etc.). So that means that the vast majority of the province is not really suited to Toyota Priuses or Smart cars. And the industries that feed our economy are not really designed to operate on 120 brake horse power vehicles with no towing or hauling capacity. So basically everyone north of Vancouver and east of Chilliwack is being dinged hardcore. Plus, up north...hell, up on top of the local mountains, it can get crazy-cold, so telling people to turn down their thermostats to save on heating fuel...ummm. As a former Northern girl (as in Northwest Territories), I'd say, "Bite me. Seriously." Are you f---ing kidding me?


2) Do you know how expansive the Lower Mainland is? So expansive that this google maps screen snap doesn't get it all....Chilliwack is just east of Abbotsford, and Mission is North of Chilliwack, and both feed into the Lower Mainland in big ways.

You know how many people *don't* get to live in Vancouver, but still have to work there? Not only is it insanely expensive to live in Vancouver, but these days, you can't, cause everything's all full up. And most people don't want to, so they live in (only slightly) slower-paced suburbs and bedroom communities (like everything North, South and West of Vancouver-proper), and work in Vancouver, and COMMUTE. Why commute?

3) Let me introduce you to why people commute instead of taking transit:

This neato little screen shot is courtesy of Translink, the all-knowing, all-powerful....overbearing Overlords of Transit. What is says is that it will take me a minimum of 44 minutes on transit in order to get to my current temp assignment on Annacis Island (ie. stupid-crazy industrial area to get to) for my job that starts at 8 am. Because I'm a temp, I don't have keys, and have to wait outside for 20 minutes. Or, I can get there on time for a trip of 50 minutes. And none of this timing takes into consideration the horrendous afternoon rush hour traffic. Or, I can drive for 20 minutes and still have a life.

Plus, okay, the price of gas has gone up from 69 cents a litre to $1.19 a litre, and that didn't change the driving patterns of people here (except they bitch about the price of gas more), so what idiot thought we'd suddenly see the Light Green and hop out of our cars over an additional 2.4 cents a litre?