Stephen Rees's blog

Globe and Mail

Ms. May released her entire platform last October in a 156-page document called Vision Green. However, because no election campaign was on, it received little attention in the news media.

It may not have received much attention in the media but it got a lot of attention from the Liberal Party – they copied most of it. Not that there is anything wrong with that. Good ideas are still good, no matter who promotes them. As long as they are part of a consistent platform. Of course the carbon tax is in there – as part of a tax shifting policy. Now it is not progressive to shift from income taxes to consumption taxes, and that is something that needs to be understood. And “revenue neutrality” may not be desirable either – because it is not so much how much revenue government collects but what it spends it on. One of the great myths around is that government is incapable of spending wisely, and that government expenditures are wasteful – whereas private spending is good for the economy. But actually, spending money on our public healthcare system is both good for us, the economy and much more efficient than the private sector model we see operating just to the south of us. And leaving people with more to spend on big pick up trucks, foreign holidays or widescreen tvs is of limited benefit. Which is also why I like the idea of an alternative to the GDP as a way to measure the economy.

So the proposal to increase GST looks pretty good

Restoring the GST to 6 per cent from its currently 5 per cent, and transferring that revenue to cities for environmental infrastructure projects such as public transit.

BUT my advice would be to avoid dedicated taxes that can only be spent on one thing (look at the mess the gas tax is creating in the US with transit systems running out of money as people switch from cars to buses and trains). Much better, in my view, to come up with a program of support for city transit to come from general revenues, and be unabashed about rolling back the tax breaks given to the rich and to corporations. My first target for revenues would be an end to corporate welfare, and many of the subsidies given to industries that need better direction – for example the money that goes to the oil companies, or the motor vehicle manufacturers.

I like the headline – it is not often that you get a headline like that in a general election. The only way it could get better is if it also raised the idea of electrifying railways, which is something we are going to need to to do to give us a much better range of power sources. Right now most trains in Canada are diesel. And a lot of locomotives are old and need to be replaced with much more efficient versions. The switcher below, for instance, saves lots of diesel oil by reducing the need the idle all the time. Many engines are not switched off even though they are not being used!