A brief overview of climate-friendly fiscal measures to decarbonize our daily journeys.
In Quebec, road transport for individuals, namely cars and light trucks, represents the lion’s share (35.6%) of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. To promote more low-carbon journeys, a range of tax measures exist. How effective are they, but also, what are their limits? We interviewed four experts: Michel Poitevin (professor at the Department of Economics at the University of Montreal), Guillaume Hébert (researcher at IRIS, the Institute for Socioeconomic Research and Information), Luc Godbout and Michaël Robert- Angers (from the Research Chair in Taxation and Public Finance at the University of Sherbrooke).
Gasoline tax
The principle is simple: we increase the price of gasoline to send a signal to motorists. “When buying a new vehicle, the consumer considers the current price of gasoline and wonders if he can afford a vehicle that consumes as much”, summarizes Michaël Robert-Angers. In recent years, the explosion in the number of light trucks on the roads has coincided with a relatively low cost per liter.
This measure generally appeals to economists, because it taxes pollution at source, but less to citizens. Calculating the ideal tax is not easy: if it must be important to influence behavior, the amount of $ 210 per tonne of carbon (or 40 cents per liter of gasoline) calculated by the Ecofiscal Commission of Canada could lead to an outcry. A tax that increases by a few cents per year could do the trick, thinks Luc Godbout.
For Michel Poitevin, the secret of success lies in maintaining a stable tax burden, that is to say that at the same time, other taxes must be reduced. In order to punish heavy consumers and reward good students, the Trudeau government has chosen to redistribute the sums collected through its carbon tax to the entire population, a solution that has achieved consensus among the experts consulted.
A penalty for the purchase (or use) of a polluting vehicle
This is to make certain vehicles (starting with SUVs) less attractive by increasing their purchase price. For example, in France, it will be necessary to pay 10 € ($ 15) for each kilo beyond the weight of 1.8 tons from 2022. The measure displeases Michel Poitevin, because it does not take into account the use of the vehicle : we pay the same tax whether we drive 5,000 or 50,000 km per year.
But she seduces others. Guillaume Hébert appreciates the fact that it saves the less well-off, while Luc Godbout sees it as an ideal complement to the gasoline tax. According to him, this penalty could even be annual, by an increase in the cost of registration of SUVs. At the same time, one could imagine a bonus for electric vehicles, which would cost less to register.
A tax on gasoline or kilometers traveled to finance public transit
This is already being done in Gaspé and Montreal, where the price per liter is increased by 1 and 3 cents respectively. Could we extend this concept to all of Quebec? Why not, answer our interlocutors, because any taxation of gasoline is good, and so much the better if the money collected is then used wisely. However, a tax of such a small amount is almost invisible to fluctuations in the price of a barrel of oil, so it may not be enough to change behavior.
Another option: finance the public transport network with a kilometer tax that would replace the gasoline tax when the transition to electricity is complete, as proposed by the Chamber of Commerce of Metropolitan Montreal. This is doable, comments Luc Godbout, but asks questions of equity: “It will hurt people in the regions, who travel long distances, more than someone who lives three kilometers from his office. “
A subsidy to buy an electric vehicle
Governments like to give these kinds of gifts, but does that make sense? Michaël Robert-Angers has several reservations: the subsidy does not benefit low-income people, because the electric car is still inaccessible to them … nor does it benefit the Quebec economy, since the province does not produce electricity. passenger vehicles. Above all, it is expensive: Energy Transition Québec calculates that with the Roulez vert program, saving a tonne of CO equivalent2 per year costs $ 199. By way of comparison, in the residential sector, Chauffez vert achieved the same result at a cost of $ 16.
Guillaume Hébert recognizes the benefits of this subsidy, which gives some results and which may, in the long term, allow the development of a local industry (think of the manufacture of charging stations), but it brings a downside. “Putting so much energy into getting people to electric cars is not going to solve our urban sprawl problems. The IRIS researcher takes the opportunity to open another door: reforming municipal taxation, so that cities are no longer so dependent on residential construction (and especially on the pavilion requiring two cars per family), would have a significant impact on emissions from the transport sector.
Tax assistance for companies that finance their employees’ public transport subscriptions
Luc Godbout qualifies this idea as “flagrant case of unrecognized measure”. Because yes, it already exists in Quebec since 2006! This is beneficial for employees who already take the bus (their ticket is reimbursed) and motivating for those who do not yet take it. As for Guillaume Hébert, he likes the idea of making companies participate in behavior change, and not just individuals. And it calls for seeing more broadly by also rewarding those which facilitate teleworking, even by penalizing those which, on the contrary, build a parking lot or expand it.
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