Carbon pricing conference to tackle controversial carbon tax

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VANCOUVER — B.C. won worldwide acclaim for introducing its controversial carbon tax last year, but economists and environmentalists now agree that it’s time to evaluate whether the tax is actually working.

Is the B.C. carbon tax “experiment” achieving its goals? Is it helping to combat human-caused climate change? How does the carbon tax affect ordinary households as well as businesses, both big and small, and government?

Those issues and more will be explored at a conference starting Tuesday, held by the Pacific Institute for Climate Solutions (PICS).

The forum — to be held at the Sheraton Vancouver Wall Centre — is expected to attract a wide cross-section of carbon-pricing experts and policy makers from government, business and academia.

Speakers on Tuesday, the first full day of the forum, include George Heyman, former B.C. Government Employees Union president and current executive director of the Sierra Club of B.C., Simon Fraser University professor Nancy Olewiler and journalists Vaughn Palmer and Jeffrey Simpson. They examine whether the tax has been effective in reducing emissions.

Speakers will also include representatives from B.C.’s ministries of finance and energy, mines and petroleum, as well as energy consultants, the Vancouver Coastal Health Authority, the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives and the four stakeholder universities that form PICS.

On Wednesday, the forum will consider how B.C. should proceed with the carbon tax.

The public is invited to attend a free panel discussion on “The Future of Carbon Pricing: Implications of the B.C. Election” on Tuesday, June 9 at 7:30 p.m. at the Sheraton Vancouver Wall Centre.

By Suzanne Fournier, The Province
For the complete forum agenda, download the pdf here.
http://pics.uvic.ca/assets/pdf/TheFutureofCarbonPricing.pdf

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