No, you can't have my 100 bucks, Carole.

Yesterday the BC Climate Action Dividend appeared in the mail box. $100 I really hadn't counted on, but there it is. Actually, $200, since we each get a cheque.

I view BC government money handouts of this sort with a good deal of cynicism. Historically they have a tendency to be a portent of something more financially painful in the coming months. Usually it is related to a pre-election vote-buying scheme and fed out through a Crown Corporation. In the past we have had "rebates" from the Insurance Corporation of British Columbia and BC Hydro only to see both those 800 pound gorillas apply for, and receive, rate increases once the election had passed.

This "dividend" is a little less camouflaged however. In a few days the BC Carbon Tax takes effect. The $100 is an offsetting instrument combined with income tax cuts. The tax itself is applied to all fossil fuel consumption and will certainly have the effect of forcing prices higher on... EVERYTHING.

That fact hasn't been lost on British Columbians and now the whole province is swirling in a sea of misinformation. Luckily, there are those out there willing to clarify how BC's Carbon Tax actually works and by pointing out that some opponents are deliberately misleading the public.

It is painful to keep reading because the poll in question is based on inaccurate information about how the carbon tax actually works. Industrial polluters are subject to the tax to the extent that they burn fossil fuels. This covers 70% of BC’s emissions. Not currently covered are cement and aluminum production where industrial processes, not fossil fuels, are the source of emissions, and “fugitive emissions” from landfills and pipelines. These are being addressed, but that 30% of BC’s emissions is being used to spin a different story to British Columbians that is misleading at best.

The BC government website on their environment action plan asks How will you spend your $100?

Spend? Clearly Gordo and goons down at the Ledge expect that we're all going to run out and spend this new-found wealth, preferably on something which promotes reducing one's personal carbon footprint. They provide a few examples of course, and it drew a line under much of what has already been done in this household.

Lawnmower? Push type. Fuel? Beer.
Alternative transportation? Foot on sidewalk, bike on road. Fuel? Food, much of it grown in the garden out back.
Lighting? Compact fluorescent wherever they work and LED where possible.
Vehicles? Parked and used as little as possible. Small fuel efficient engines. An electric vehicle is certainly in the future but not until it can be charged properly with something like a solar system.

Et cetera.

In short, we've been ahead of that game for some time now. That doesn't mean we can't find new ways to cut personal carbon emissions, but the suggestions provided by the impaired driving crowd in Victoria are "old hat".

So, what to do with two-hundred bucks? (Short of just saving it.)

Then along comes the BC NDP with their idea.

The NDP has a helpful suggestion on how to spend your $100 climate action cheque.

Give it to them.

In a "Dear Friend" e-mail to supporters, NDP environment critic Shane Simpson urges people to make their "gas tax rebate count" by funneling it to his party.

"We need to get tough on polluters, expand transit and aggressively promote green energy production," he says. "But we need your help.

"Here's what you can do right now: Join me and donate your $100 tax rebate to the B.C. NDP."

Not to put too fine a point on it, but fuck you Simpson. I don't have a lot of time for politicians in general, and I am certainly not a supporter of the current gang running the province, but I have to swallow hard and agree with Colin Hansen on this one:

Now, it appears the opposition party is trying to make money off a program that it doesn't even support, Finance Minister Colin Hansen said. "I think that anybody that would be tempted to make a $100 donation to the NDP over this issue should actually look very closely at the hypocrisy that is coming from Carole James and the hypocrisy that's coming from the NDP caucus," he said.

Yup. But I suppose Simpson, in stating that it's a straight-up ask, doesn't get it because he lives in that political swamp on Belleville Street in Victoria.

I find it a little galling that as this $100 per citizen started gracing BC mail slots there are all sorts of organizations out there who suddenly have a "great idea" if you give it to them.

So, what to do with that $200? Our personal carbon emission reduction plan is already in place and it has allocations from our annual budget. If the BC government's Carbon Tax is truly revenue neutral then our plan will proceed on pace. If, on the other hand, Campbell and his Vancouver-centric harbour rats are lying, (Let's face it. They're BC politicians.), then our plan will not meet its targets and slow down. That will be the BC government's fault.

See how that works, Gordo? Do you see Simpson? If the increase in retail prices of EVERYTHING that is about to happen in the province eats away at our income to a greater degree than you can reduce our taxes, our carbon footprint will not decrease. The onus is on you guys to make this work. We have a plan and if you haven't done your sums properly, you will be the ones to screw it up.

Something which may be lost on most British Columbians is another small point. That one-hundred bucks per family member is not taxable. It is being handled as an "over-payment" of personal income tax to the province and is deemed a tax rebate. It's a real hundred bucks - not $100 minus taxes.

So, given that the hundred bucks each wasn't on the "income" line of our budget, and given that the BC NDP's crass hypocrisy has pissed us off, and given that we already have a plan to reduce our carbon footprint, there is also an opportunity to reduce our income tax further by simply donating the money to charity.

We already support an international effort to improve the lives of children and empower women in their communities through an environmentally friendly and efficient means of providing lighting in places which would otherwise spend a good deal of their winters in darkness. Give a child light to read by and the child will be better educated; give women the authority to run the lighting system and you give them personal power in their male-centric communities; run it all with solar power from the beginning and you've made lives better through clean technology.

So, Light Up Your World, you get $200.