Trucking Alliance Says Dion’s
Fisheries and Transportation Fund Doesn’t Take Away Carbon Tax
Sting
(Ottawa, September 3, 2008) -- David Bradley, CEO of
the Canadian Trucking Alliance says today’s announcement from federal Liberal
leader, Stephane Dion, calling for a $250 million, four year fund to help the
fisheries and transportation sector invest in green technologies is not likely
to take away much of the sting from the carbon tax originally proposed in
Dion’s Green Shift plan. “The trucking industry is already making
the shift to smog-free engines, ultra-low sulphur diesel fuel and proven and
available GHG busting technologies and devices,” he said. “What we
need is a rebate program to accelerate the investment, especially during
these tough economic times. “ In fact it has its own plan called
enviroTruck which it says would remove the GHG equivalent of 2.6 million cars or
64,000 trucks from the highways.
Bradley says that it is not clear whether the fund
announced today would be used for rebates or distributed some other way. In
addition, he says "when the Liberal proposal is looked at over four years and
spread across the all the freight modes and the fisheries industry it is unclear
how much will really be available for the trucking industry."
He says that the trucking industry, which
consumes just over 7 billion litres of diesel fuel per year to power
its fleet of tractor trailers, is currently paying over $280 million a year
in federal excise tax on diesel fuel – a form of taxation which is
archaic and regressive and should have been repealed or reformed years ago. If
according to the Green Shift plan a new carbon tax was to kick in and add
another 7 cents per litre to the cost of diesel fuel, the additional tax paid by
the trucking industry would be close to $500 million per year. "We still end up
paying significantly more tax at a time when the industry is suffering from
higher fuel costs, the appreciation of the Canadian dollar, border delays and a
freight recession in both the United States and parts of Canada. Not to mention
that trucks are responsible for the distribution of 90% of the country’s
consumer products and foodstuffs as well as two-thirds of our trade with the
US.”
"The goal of any environmental program should
be to eliminate smog and reduce GHG’s as quickly as possible. The
technology exists in trucking to do that and our enviroTruck program lays out a
clear and efficient plan for achieving this," says Bradley. “A rebate
program is a key part of that especially in current economic conditions when
investment capital in a tight margin business like trucking is scarce. But as
the dominant mode of freight transportation and the only mode that currently
must comply with regulated emissions from its fuels and engines, it is unclear
how a broad program for all modes let alone the fisheries industry will help to
ensure that the funds paid into government coffers from taxing our
industry’s most costly business input --- fuel – will flow back into
the trucking industry to any reasonable degree."
Bradley points out the railways, which are
significantly more profitable than the trucking sector was already granted
accelerated capital cost allowances in the last federal budget to help them
adjust to emission regulation similar to that which already exists in trucking,
but which will not come into force until 2012. But today’s announcement
from the Liberal leader is silent on whether trucking CCA rates would be
adjusted accordingly. Still, he says, “CCA rate acceleration is really
only of help if you are generating a profit and most trucking companies at best
are earning razor thin margins these days.”
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