A new carbon initiative could bring more money to households in Alberta.
The initiative imposes a pricing “backstop” in the form of a carbon tax on provinces that fail to create a carbon pricing plan.
The tax would start at $20 per tonne in January 2019 and rise by $10 annually until reaching $55 in 2022.
Any revenues collected from this initiative would then have to be distributed in the form of a dividend to the province or territory it was collected from. Funding could go to provincial and territorial governments or to individuals and businesses.
A study commissioned by “Canadians for Clean Prosperity” shows that if the dividends were to go to individuals or businesses, most would receive more than they paid in carbon taxes.
The dividend would be the total provincial or territorial revenue brought in by the tax, divided equally to citizens or households in the same province or territory.
If median household income of Fort McMurray were to stay at $106,912 as listed on Statistics Canada in 2015, the average single-income household would pay around $603 in tax and receive the dividend of $1268, leaving a savings of $726.
The study estimates that by 2022 the household carbon dividend would reach $1890 per year.
The initiative focuses on raising the cost of emissions while equally distributing the revenue to households across the province.
