WHEREAS the Province of British Columbia, through measures such as the Climate Action Charter, the Carbon Tax and the Provincial Transit Plan, has been a leader in recognizing the importance of reducing greenhouse gases; AND WHEREAS local governments face significant financial challenges in order to increase transit services, a key element of the Provincial Greenhouse Gas Reduction Strategy: THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED that the Province of British Columbia be requested to direct a portion of all carbon taxes collected to enable an increase in the proportional share of provincial funding for all transit services and programs.
Ministry of Finance The carbon tax is revenue neutral, meaning that all revenues collected from the carbon tax are returned to taxpayers and businesses through tax reductions. The Revenue Neutral Carbon Tax Plan and Report presented in Budget 2011 show the tax cuts that return carbon tax revenues to individuals and businesses. The Province currently provides funding to local governments through a variety of sources and programs e.g. Traffic Fine Revenue Sharing, Towns for Tomorrow, Building Canada Fund, unconditional Small Community and Regional District Basic Grants. The Province also provides conditional grants to local governments under the Climate Action Revenue Incentive Program. Under the program eligible local governments receive a grant equal to 100 per cent of the carbon tax paid as a direct expenditure in the previous year. To date the program has provided nearly 7.8 million to local governments. The government has introduced a number of measures and programs in the past several years to encourage and assist local governments to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions. For example: - Provincial Transit Plan infrastructure investments to the end of fiscal 201011 total over 448 million, including investments of over 304 million in Metro Vancouver and over 143 million throughout the rest of the province. - 292 million to support local government infrastructure projects; - 68 million for Towns for Tomorrow that provides infrastructure funding for smaller communities; - 20 million to help switch remote communities, mainly First Nations, from diesel-generated power plants to sources of clean electricity, and to improve the energy efficiency of their homes and businesses; - Since 2001, the province has provided or announced over 143 million to cycling in over 75 communities. This includes: - Over 66 million for Highway project investments, including 50 million worth of cycling infrastructure for the Gateway Program. - 28.1 million for Bike BC, of which 8.4 million has been invested to date. Commitments include 10 million to be cost-shared with local governments to link their cycling networks with the Gateway Cycling Infrastructure. - 49.6 million in cycling infrastructure delivered in partnership with other levels of government. This includes 14.2 million in 200910 for cycling projects and cost sharing on 30 municipal roads projects that included cycling components through the Local Motion and Building Canada Programs. - The Community Action on Energy Emissions program which provides funding, research assistance towards studies, policy work and implementation related to energy conservation and emissions reductions. As well, the Smart Planning for Communities Initiative empowers communities to undertake planning that is longer-term, incorporates sustainability principles and leads to more compact, complete and energy efficient communities with reduced greenhouse gas emissions. As part of this initiative sustainability facilitators are available to local governments to help them undertake integrated sustainability planning and action.