B.C.’s carbon tax, the first of its kind in North America, will apply to almost all fossil fuels, including gasoline, heating oil and propane.
For consumers it means paying 2.4 cents a litre more at the pump, rising to 7.2 cents a litre by 2012. For diesel and heating oil, the tax is 2.8 cents a litre, rising to 8.3 cents in 2012.
The revenue-neutral tax aims to generate $1.8 billion over three years and return all of the money in the form of tax cuts, credits for low income families and a one-time $100 climate action dividend.
A family that earns $90,000 a year, driving a van and a sedan, will pay about $100 more in gas and $50 more in heat and hot water, but will receive tax cuts of about $225.