What I find a bit ironic, is the smug tone that the BC government always takes when pointing out how green and progressive the province is, as they point to the carbon tax. The carbon tax addresses one aspect of global warming - carbon, but fails to prevent any of the damage that is done by BC's large mines (Mount Polley, anyone?), clear cutting of forests (conveniently not next to the highways), or salmon farms.

Sure, the carbon tax was met with tax breaks and credits to make it revenue neutral, but, as other users have pointed out, the government increases MSP premiums and ICBC premiums.

The sad reality is that the vast majority of Canada's economy is still resource based. We extract material (trees, wheat, oil, minerals, fish) and sell it to someone else in order for them to manufacture a product and sell it back to us (for more money).

The other thing people need to keep in mind, is that corporations are not our friends. The sole purpose of a corporation is to make money and make sure that their share holders are content. In an economic vacuum, where capital can't be transferred outside its jurisdiction, an increase of corporate income tax, for example, would lead to a direct rise in government revenue. In an increasingly globalized world, where every other day the government is signing free trade agreements, the corporations have the benefit of relocating to a country with no carbon taxes, lower environmental standards, lower labour costs, lower safety standards, etc.

We have in effect, shot ourselves in the foot. Unfortunately, the more we make it difficult for companies to operate,the more companies are simply going to move to other jurisdictions. The more free trade agreements we sign (because hey, we want cheap shit) the more options these companies have.