NDP Offers corporate tax breaks for LNG

We're certainly shattering stereotypes left, right and centre. The Vancouver Sun is reporting that "Premier John Horgan offered billions of dollars worth of tax breaks to liquefied natural gas producers Thursday in a move to entice the construction of an export facility in Kitimat."

Oh but they said the NDP would tax and spend. Evidently not. As soon as the NDP were elected they lowered taxes by removing bridge tolls. Now they are offering tax incentives to attrack business. Imagine that. The flip side of that shattered stereotype is another shocker. The environmentalists are actually opposing it as if coal was cleaner than natural gas. Go figure. These environmentalists don't care about the environment. They're just mental.

"Horgan said he was heavily influenced by a trade mission to Asia in January where he met with project proponents and saw the pollution caused by coal-fired power plants. B.C. could help displace coal in Asia with cleaner LNG." No kidding. Have you seen the pollution in Beijing from all the coal? It is astounding. Don't the environmentalists want a reduction in the coal exports out of the Surrey docks? This project would greatly reduce CO2 emissions world wide.

I lived in Ireland for two years in 1988 and 1989. At that time eveyone heated their homes with coal fires. In the south it was open coal fireplaces. In the north they had enclosed fireplaces that burned coal which heated water that was pumped through radiators. The pollution from all that coal was incredible. Cork had a thick fog of coal smog daily. When I wrote home about it my father said that was what it was like in West Vancouver when your mother and I were first married. We had a coal fireplace and the smoke from those coal fires covered everything.

I was shocked to discover that only one generation ago we had coal fires in Vancouver and all the smog that went with them. Natural gas has eliminated that problem quite effectively.

Another lesson I learned from Ireland back then was providing tax incentives to attract business. Not much was happening economically in Ireland at the time so the government came up with an idea. 50% of nothing is nothing but 10% of something is something. The government of Ireland offered tax breaks to large corporations as incentive to open up shop in Ireland and it worked. All of a sudden the Shannon Development centre was created in the middle of nowhere.

High tech industry cropped up right beside Paddy and Mick's sheep farm. People had jobs and started paying income tax from those jobs. The government also made some tax from the large industries that moved into town. That's why Google has it's headquaters in Dublin. The Irish Govenemnt gave them tax breaks and the people have jobs that pay income tax.

Offering tax incentives to LNG in Kitmat is good business simply because 50% of nothing is nothing but a smaller percentage of something is something. Do the math.

In contrast, Andrew Weaver has lost his mind. He said he might withdraw his support of the minority NDP government. What will that solve? Do you think the Liberals won't push for a LNG facility? We need to oppose coal exports not natural gas. Give your head a shake.