FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: noon Friday, December 13, 2013
CONTACT: Cathy Orlando at cathy@citizensclimatelobby.ca, 705-929-4043
(Sudbury, ON) – Canada’s Citizens Climate Lobby (CCL) applauds Bruce Hyer’s stance in support of the carbon pricing mechanism, Carbon Fee and Dividend. Today, the MP for Thunder Bay-Superior North, made a historic announcement that he would join the Green Party of Canada because it is the only Canadian political party thus far to support Carbon Fee and Dividend.
Carbon Fee and Dividend would place a predictable and incrementally rising fee on carbon pollution and 100% of the money would be returned to Canadians. The term fee is used deliberately to indicate that it is a revenue neutral tax system, which means it would not increase the net amount of money in our government’s treasury.
Carbon Fee and Dividend, as proposed by Citizens Climate Lobby, is an upstream tax and is levied at the well head, or mine where fossil fuels are produced or point of entry into our economy via imports.
All revenues generated by the fee would be distributed equally to Canadian households to help shoulder increased costs associated with the fee as our country transitions to a low carbon economy. Citizens Climate Lobby prefers that the carbon dividend be returned to citizens in the form of a cheque to ensure that all Canadian residents benefit.
Carbon Fee and Dividend is a nonpartisan policy, created by citizens for citizens as well as championed by citizens. The original Carbon Fee and Dividend proposal was written by Environmental Protection Agency lawyers Laurie Williams and Allan Zabel and has been championed by Canada’s Citizens Climate Lobby since September 2010.
Citizens Climate Lobby (CCL) is a volunteer-based organization with the mandate to create political will for a stable climate. CCL chapters currently cover 41 ridings in Canada and almost half of the congressional districts in the USA. We are rapidly expanding in both countries. There are also national CCL organizations in Sweden and Bangladesh. CCL currently empowers over 3,500 citizens in North America to work with their political representatives to support our form of carbon tax, considered by experts to be the most effective in reducing emissions while diversifying the economy.
“Citizens Climate Lobby has been lobbying Bruce Hyer to champion Carbon Fee and Dividend since 2011,” says Cathy Orlando, National Manager of Canada’s CCL. “MP Hyer has long been a champion on climate action. Citizens Climate Lobbyists also worked previously with MP Hyer on the Climate Change Accountability Act in 2010. Bruce Hyer feels passionately that the Carbon Fee and Dividend carbon pricing policy will be an important instrument in the transition to a low carbon economy.”
MP Hyer actively participated in CCL’s first Canadian conference and lobby days in November 2013. On November 19, 2013 he asked the government to consider Carbon Fee and Dividend during Question Period in the House of Commons.
For more about Canada’s Citizens Climate Lobby visit our website and Facebook page
Some of the attendees at the first annual national conference in Canada for Citizens Climate Lobby on November 17, 2013.
(Photo Credits: Citizens Climate Lobby)
MP Bruce Hyer with Citizens Climate Lobby November 18, 2013 (Photo Credits: Citizens Climate Lobby)
MP Bruce Hyer with Citizens Climate Lobby in the House of Commons. (Photo Credits: Citizens Climate Lobby)