Oil Subsidies: Finally, some light at the end of the funnel

 
At long last, the federal government has decided not to go with the flow.

In March 2007, federal finance minister Jim Flaherty revealed that his 2007 budget included a plan to phase out a program that was putting billions of dollars into the pockets of oil and gas companies. Flaherty announced that the phase-out of the Accelerated Capital Cost Allowance program - beginning in 2011 - should see all funding completely eliminated by 2015.

While Flaherty's new budget represents some progress, the announcement was bittersweet for Ecojustice.

In 2005, we represented the Pembina Institute, Friends of the Earth Canada and former parliamentary Environment Chair Charles Caccia in a petition to the federal Auditor General that called for an investigation into the more than $1.4 billion in subsidies Canadian taxpayers provide the oil and gas industry each year.

We argued that it is unacceptable to allow the industry to receive these handouts while making multi-billion dollar profits, particularly because it clashes profoundly with Canada's Kyoto goals. Flaherty's recent budget offers some hope that we're being heard.

However, it will be nearly a decade before this particular program's phase-out is complete, and it represents only a fraction of the total taxpayer subsidies. In the meantime, huge amounts of greenhouse gases will continue to be dumped into our atmosphere as a result of the enormous financial incentive our government continues to provide to oil companies.

Until these perverse taxpayer subsidies are ended, we'll continue to champion the reallocation of these substantial funds into programs that combat global warming and protect the environment.