I like the carbon tax because it makes me money

When it comes to discussions about taxes and public policy, everyone gets to grind their own axe. So why not me?

Well-funded business lobbies — and there are plenty of them — push their agendas for lowered taxes. The Canadian Taxpayers Federation claims to represent my interests as an ordinary citizen, but they've never asked me what my interests might be.

For my part, I support a carbon tax both in my home province of Alberta, and federally. Not just for environmental reasons, or to improve Alberta's and Canada's image regarding climate change. No, I want a carbon tax, because under the rules explained to me so far, I'll make out like a bandit.

In fact, I can hardly wait for January to arrive so our household can collect its first $300 rebate cheque.

We've already invested in energy-saving technology in our little home, so the increase in utility and gasoline costs that we will see as a result of carbon levies ought to be much less than those of other less efficient households. Carbon taxes are linked to energy consumption but rebates are linked to income, so families like ours will be ahead of the game.

What's not to like?

In the past, I had calculated the economic benefit of my riding a bike to work to be worth about $1,000 a year as a tax-free increase in my disposable income. With the added cost of a carbon tax, if you decide to bike to work for the nine or 10 months of the year when it's easily feasible in 2017, that benefit would rise.

Who doesn't want an extra $1,000 of spending money a year, plus another $200 or $300 cash rebate from the government for the privilege of not burning so much fuel? Well, in Alberta — and Saskatchewan — a lot of people don't.

There are yard signs in Red Deer saying Kill the Carbon Tax. Apparently, these people don't like their money.

Saskatchewan premier Brad Wall declared the proposed federal carbon tax will siphon $2.5 billion out of his province, once it is fully implemented by 2022. That statement has been rated as Mostly Baloney by CBC's fact-checking site, Baloney Meter.

That's because there are two sides to the taxation coin, something most business lobbies and even the Canadian Taxpayers Federation don't cite as often as they should. There's the taking with one hand and the spending with the other. There's also the social benefit of the purposes behind taxes, which viewed globally are worth money.

The federal government has vowed that the money taken in carbon taxes from the provinces will be returned to the provinces. Brad Wall, like all premiers, can allot that money as he sees fit.

He could lower business taxes if he thinks that's a good idea. The Alberta government will lower its own small business tax from three per cent to two, once our carbon tax comes into effect. Who doesn't like a two-per-cent tax rate?

In fact, over the weekend, a Globe and Mail article put forward numbers suggesting that each dollar increase in business taxes produce between three and five dollars in losses to business. If that's so, then the $865 million the Alberta government intends to allocate toward our small business rate cut should produce a rather hefty return.

Raising the $9.6 billion Alberta says it will collect over the next five years is one thing, deciding how that money is spent is another.

Right now, what we've got is pretty vague: $6.2 billion to diversify the energy industry and create new jobs, plus $3.4 billion in rebates to businesses and communities (I hope that means municipalities). And to households, which means me.

And that's the part that should be getting the scrutiny.

Years ago, Alberta put a levy on car and truck tires. It's a tax. The spending of that levy to find innovative ways to recycle those tires has been widely hailed as a money-saving, job-producing success. The costly effort of a previous Alberta government to capture and store carbon dioxide has not been hailed as a money-saving, job-producing success. Let's just leave it at that.

Not every government initiative succeeds. So we need vigilance to see that we get not just a revenue-neutral carbon tax, but a profitable one. Rather than griping about a tax — which is easy — we need to be able to judge the financial return.

I get a good financial return from leaving my car in the garage as much as possible, and walking or cycling on my daily commutes. With the carbon tax, I fully expect that return to increase. Multiplied throughout the province, such a small change has been studied and shown to potentially save families and municipalities many millions of dollars every year.

If business can lobby for its narrow interests in the making of tax policy, why can't I? Bring on the carbon tax, I say. I have plans for the money.

Follow Greg Neiman's blog at ReadersAdvocate.blogspot.ca