TomorrowNow – Manitoba’s Green Plan proclaims, “Manitoba’s goal is to be one of the most sustainable places to live on earth” and promises that “a strong, resilient green economy will be built to reduce environmental risks and ecological scarcities, while improving well-being and social equity for Manitobans.”
When Finance Minister Greg Dewar invited public submissions for Budget 2015, Green Action Centre responded proposing A Green Budget for a Green Economy.
One issue stands out and that is Manitoba’s failure to contain ever-rising greenhouse gas emissions from transportation. This has negated real reductions in other sectors. For decades, transportation has been Manitoba’s sacred, fossil-fuelled cow, imposing ever-larger costs on society while paying for an ever-declining proportion of those costs.
Contrary to sustainable (and fair) user-pay and polluter-pay principles, transportation receives a triple subsidy.
1. The fuel excise tax covers less than half of road investments with the rest coming from general revenues.
2. Tailpipe greenhouse gas emissions, which increase costly climate change damage globally and in Manitoba, are dumped into the atmosphere free of charge.
3. There is no sales tax on fuel to contribute – as other purchases must – to public benefits like health and education.
We invite you to read our Budget 2015 submission.
A good supplement is the Centre’s previous Budget 2013 submission.
