The Public Policy Forum's
Digital Democracy Project,
says Canadian voters rank
the environment as their
second greatest political
concern, and want to reduce
Canada's greenhouse gas
emissions.
But they don't want to pay for it.
"It’s a general human phenomenon
that we don’t align personal sacrifice
with personality priorities."
"I mean, that’s why people
don’t exercise, right?,"
said University of Toronto
political science professor
and survey lead for the
Digital Democracy Project,
Peter Loewen.
"I think what’s
happening here,
... is the cost is
very understandable
to citizens."
The Liberal government
has brought in a carbon levy
of $20 per tonne of emissions
this year, rising to
$50 per tonne in 2022.
Conservatives oppose
the carbon levy
and, while they promise
to crack down on
heavy industrial emitters,
they offer no targets for
emission reductions.
The good news for the Liberals
is that not only is the environment
a major political issues for Canadians
— with 17% of respondents saying
it’s the most important issue to them.
While 74% of respondents said
they are in favor of Canada
reducing emissions - mostly through
renewable energy subsidies (72%),
just 36% said they would support
increasing the carbon tax.
"one group (was) told a carbon tax
would increase the cost of gasoline
by five cents a litre, another group
by 10 cents, and the final group
by 15 cents."
"At five cents, 42% of respondents
are estimated to oppose a carbon tax,
but this rises to 51% at 15 cents per litre,"
the survey reveals.
A majority of Conservative voters
opposed the carbon price at any cost,
while supporters of the left-leaning
Liberals, New Democrats, Greens
and Bloc Québécois were unresponsive
to a hike in the price.
DETAILS:
1,554 voting-aged Canadians
were surveyed between
Aug 17 and Aug 23, 2019,
and the results were weighted
by region, age and gender.