The carbon tax proposed by the Ontario Liberal government does nothing to reduce fuel use.
That’s the position from the Northern Ontario Party and Timiskaming-Cochrane candidate Shawn Poirier. He says part of the Liberal approach to curbing greenhouse gas emissions is to get people to use more electric vehicles.
However Poirier says that approach won’t work in Northern Ontario. “We have gas, diesel and propane,” Poirier said. “Not too many people will want to trust electric vehicles in minus 30 degree weather.”
He also says Canada is a very low polluter compared to other nations. But Poirier says if we want to see real reductions in emissions then add extra taxes to goods Canada imports from high polluting countries like China. He says if we apply a special import tax to goods from these countries making them more expensive, their sales might drop and once they understand why, they might start reducing their carbon footprint. “They might say, hey look Ontario is doing this, let’s all help and reduce our carbon footprint on our planet,” Poirier said.
This ends our coverage of the candidates in the Timiskaming-Cochrane riding. Moose News was not able to reach the Liberal or Libertarian candidates for their views on the various issues.
The provincial election is this Thursday.
(Written By: Rocco Frangione)