Liberals announce “green shift” plan

Liberal Leader Stéphane Dion is promising Canadians a raft of tax cuts and other goodies that he said will leave average taxpayers much better off despite sharply higher energy costs under the Liberals’ revolutionary “green shift” energy plan. Dion launched the green policy at a campaign-style event in a packed Parliament Hill committee room this morning.

The Liberal leader said average families would reap the benefits of his commitment to return $15.4 billion in “carbo-dollars” to Canadians each year to compensate for gradually rising taxes on fossil fuels. “We need to make polluters pay and put every single penny back into the hands of Canadians,” Dion said.

By the fourth year, the average increase in energy costs for the average family would be between $225 to $250 a year, but these added costs will be overshadowed by the benefits of the Liberals’ plan to shift “pollution taxes” back to individual and corporate taxpayers, Dion said.

According to the plan, a two-earner family with two children and a combined income of $20,000 will receive a benefit of nearly $2,400 when it is fully implemented in four years. A family with two children earning $40,000 a year will save nearly $1,900, and a family with two children earning $60,000 will save over $1,300. This will be accomplished through cuts in income tax rates.

“The Liberal Green Shift (plan) will accomplish multiple goals: it will make real progress in the fight against the climate change crisis while encouraging energy efficiency in the face of skyrocketing energy costs,” Dion said. “And it will make our economy more competitive, while helping to decrease poverty.”

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