Making the case for the carbon tax

Opinion

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 31/03/2019 (2000 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Chief Allan Adam of the Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation in northern Alberta sent a delegation to Regina in February to speak in the case of the government of Saskatchewan against the federal government.

The case involves the controversial carbon tax by the Trudeau government and interpretations of Canada’s constitution. Saskatchewan alleges Ottawa has no right to impose the tax on provinces, while the federal government states climate change is a federal issue and must be dealt with by all Canadians at once.

Provinces who failed to come up with a plan to deal with climate change became subject to a federal carbon tax on all fossil fuel-using activities (such as driving a car, warming a home, or taking a plane ride). This is exactly what happened April 1 to Ontario, Saskatchewan, New Brunswick and Manitoba — who all either refused or failed to impose their own emissions limits and pricing.

What does a First Nation in northern Alberta have to do with a battle between Saskatchewan and Canada?

The issue, according to Adam, is this conversation is missing one of the most important constitutional considerations of all: Indigenous rights.

According to Section 35(1) of Canada’s constitution: “The existing Aboriginal and treaty rights of the Aboriginal people in Canada are hereby recognized and affirmed.”

This means, according to Canadian law, decisions that impact Indigenous rights must involve Indigenous peoples.

And nothing — nothing — impacts Indigenous cultures, languages, and nations more than climate change.

“We have a right to stand up and protect what is left here in the world,” Allan said to the court. “When things happen on the land, we are the first to notice.”

Indigenous cultures are intertwined with the territories in which we live. The air, land, water — and the beings who live in these places — create our clan systems, ceremonies, and languages.

For instance, spring is a time when we sing mukwag (bear songs), honouring the teachings and knowledge bears present us with. One is a reminder of how the land provides us with medicines and cycles of life.

What do mother bears protect the most? Life. Their cubs. Sustainability.

The same could be said about the cracking ice, budding trees, and returning geese.

The land is our greatest teacher.

Climate change, however, ends the lessons. There is no reason to sing bear songs if there are no bears.

Bears — like caribou, salmon, and orcas — are rapidly disappearing as lands are flooded, streams become toxic, and sea temperatures rise as polar ice melts.

Climate change is real, and its impact is being experienced first-hand by Indigenous peoples.

This is why communities like Athabasca First Nation and the Fond du Lac Dene Nation (Saskatchewan) backed the federal government’s plan to introduce a carbon tax.

The simple premise is if you tax particular activities and charge citizens for their impacts, humans tend to reduce these activities.

It’s punitive, of course, but meant to discourage people from not taking more than their share. It’s meant to remind everyone that when we leave the lights on, drive unnecessarily, or take from the land until it has nothing more to give, there is a cost.

The cost, in this case, is money.

For Indigenous peoples, however, the cost of climate change is death.

Death to our animal relations. Death to our cultures and way of life. Death to diversity.

A carbon tax may not be perfect, but for Indigenous peoples there is no other apparent solution.

The issue is what is done with money collected from a carbon tax. The federal government says it will reduce other taxes in exchange, offer rebates, and invest in environmental initiatives.

Skeptics might be suspicious of politicians in charge of money. But will Canadians change their lifestyle without an incentive?

Most anti-carbon tax politicians argue it penalizes private, energy sector corporations, eventually resulting in less jobs, less investment, and less economy for communities. They argue corporations should be offered rebates and financial incentives instead.

Forgive me if I’m more suspicious about taxpayer money in the hands of shareholders and chief executive officers. (How much do they make again?)

Until I see a tangible, realistic plan by private, extraction-based companies to stop climate change all we have really is politicians. And the people who put them there.

For a long time, Canadians have lived in an unsustainable, exploitive, and environmentally devastating economy driven by profit.

From stealing the land to building cities to creating companies that kill the bison and poison the water, this is the story of Canada — and Indigenous peoples have paid the price.

Values of unsustainability and exploitation don’t work with our traditional values. While some Indigenous peoples have personally profited off exploitative economies, our cultures have not.

Our nations need healthy environments to survive. Canada needs this, too.

In Anishinaabe culture we have a saying: what are we doing for those who come after us?

We have a song that says this. We learned it from the bears.

So, when paying four cents more a litre at the gas pump or listening to stump speeches by leaders in 4×4 trucks complaining about the carbon tax, think about the bears.

They’re thinking about you.

niigaan.sinclair@freepress.mb.ca