March 18, 2010
Tax cuts for oil firms trump green initiatives
‘Tip of the iceberg,’ NDP’s Cullen says
By Mike De Souza, Canwest News ServiceMarch 18, 2010
Three of the biggest oil companies in Canada are projected to receive more in corporate tax cuts than what the Harper government plans to spend on green initiatives, an analysis by the NDP concludes.
The analysis estimates that Encana, Canadian Natural Resources Ltd. and Imperial Oil will benefit from more than $440 million in tax cuts in 2012, compared with $357 million in new measures announced by the government in its last budget to promote sustainable development and energy efficiency.
“Government is about making choices, and the choices made here are clearly to favour a carbon economy and (to) ignore the new green economy,” said NDP natural resources critic Nathan Cullen.
The NDP used financial statements, average profits over the past three years and projections for oil prices to calculate the impact of a three-per-cent corporate tax cut. But Cullen said the figures do not include additional subsidies offered to oil companies to research and develop carbon capture and storage technology to allow them to bury greenhouse gas emissions underground.
“This is just the tip of the iceberg in terms of the support that the Harper government puts toward oil and gas companies,” Cullen said.
Encana would benefit from $153 million in reduced taxes in 2012, according to the NDP calculations, while Canadian Natural Resources Ltd., and Imperial Oil would get $172 million and $119 million, respectively.
Last week, a study by the Pembina Institute, an environmental research group, calculated that in the U.S., the Obama administration was spending eight times more per person on new sustainable development and energy efficiency measures in its federal budget than the Harper government is spending.
But Environment Minister Jim Prentice has said that Cullen “has his facts simply wrong.” Prentice has also highlighted previous investments of several hundred million dollars per year for green infrastructure and green technology funds to meet a target of generating 90 per cent of Canada’s electricity with low or insignificant emissions.
A spokesman for the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers said the tax cuts, which began nearly a decade ago, have benefited companies from all sectors, making Canada more competitive and creating jobs.
The Montreal Gazette
Read more: http://www.montrealgazette.com/business/cuts+firms+trump+green+initiatives/2695391/story.html#ixzz0iZTk9Zn8
