And they can do that now cus majority... but then they seem to be shit scared of upsetting the fossil industry.

Predominantly foreign owned O&G companies in Canada are going to make an extra $6B+ from 47's war on Iran... Instead of spending $2.4B of public money on a gas tax cut, Carney could have enacted a 75% excess profit tax (bringing in $4.5B+) and split the revenue 50/50 between renewable infrastructure and a affordability rebate to the 80% of Canadians with the lowest household incomes.

It would have helped more, would have resulted in actual generational infrastructure (which he like to talk about), and wouldn't require cuts to other programs to pay for.

I really wish he would have announced a 2.5B$ investment in #renewables and #EV charging, instead of yet another #fossilFuels subsidy.

Unfortunately, such a draconian method could cause further gas price hikes and be very unpopular. Any government implementing this would need to lie by omission to be elected, if they are elected at all, and would almost certainly be ousted at the next elections.

Would it be worth it? Maybe. It could give the jolt we collectively need to change our destructive way of life. I have a feeling however it would be short lived.

@alessandro @avilewis

World events are known to everyone. The same way that the Carney government is pausing tax collection, this trigger could be used to increase tax collection on oil companies.

For the rest I'm really just speculating because I don't know how this works in practice. My idea would be to base this additional tax on comparing companies profits of a given year with the average of 3 years prior to the significant event. Maybe not the best way to implement this, but simple.

In any case, as Avi said, cutting the federal gas tax is not a good way to help people financially. It'll be popular because people will immediately see the difference (hopefully). But with little competition, there is nothing preventing retailers from keeping prices high and pocketing the tax. This essentially redirects public funds in the the pockets of those who are already making bank.

As for depending on oil revenues, I'm with you there. One way could be to use it as a lump sum to pay back the debt instead of being incorporated into the budget and spent.

@avilewis

Oh there's no doubt they funded lobbying! But that isn't just a big oil problem - everybody does it. We need to drop the hammer on all of them, but it's a separate issue.

@dacmot @avilewis

Are gas shortages an acceptable part of the transition off fossil fuels or is a gentler transition still possible?

It's time to Chapter 7 liquidate all the oil companies (and anyone else doing fossil carbon extraction) and shut them all down.

Yes, that would mean a whole bunch of other activity so farming would keep working, but we need to do all of that, too.