SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE - About 12 people met at the Tree of Peace Feb. 24 to hear from a panel about what a carbon tax is, what it involves and what it would mean for the NWT.

Doug Ritchie, program director for Ecology North and a panellist at the town hall meeting, said the event was meant to present a carbon tax as a tangible idea for community members.

"We saw the price of oil go up in 2008, then it went down," said Ritchie. "It doesn't go up in a stable predictable manner. As soon as it goes back down again, people say, 'I don't have to change.' That's the great thing about rolling out a carbon tax. Essentially it gives individuals and households a stable and predictable set of increases throughout the years."

He said there are two general schools of thought concerning the spending of carbon tax revenues. British Columbia has had a carbon tax in effect for about three years and uses strict revenue neutrality, which Ritchie said means for every dollar that comes in as revenue from the tax, a dollar goes out in the form of tax relief to citizens and corporations.

"The opposite approach is taken in Quebec. It basically is a relatively modest carbon tax but is used to fund green energy projects throughout the province," he said.

He said Quebec has a relatively modest carbon tax of about one cent per litre of gasoline whereas British Columbia's carbon tax stands at about five cents per litre.

Ritchie said the discussions were theoretically based, with no exploration of percentages or monetary rates on a potential carbon tax.

He said there isn't much of a difference between existing fuel taxes based on "arbitrary amounts" and a carbon tax.

"The carbon tax would be based on specific amounts based on the amount of carbon pollution produced by burning a litre of such-and-such fuel," he said.

Ritchie said this is the first town hall meeting to discuss the carbon tax and its impact, and he hopes to have more meetings in the future.

Alex Wood, senior director of markets and policy for Sustainable Prosperity, a self-proclaimed "do-tank" whose aim is to bring together individuals to find market-based solutions for a sustainable environment, was another panellist at the event.

"I think people were starting from the same place which is the NWT knows all about climate change, is experiencing climate change," he said.

"What happens if the government were to bring in a carbon tax? What would happen with the money that was raised through the carbon tax?"

Some options for revenue mentioned were supporting remote communities, assisting people with lower incomes and investing in renewable energy.

Tim Doyle, executive director of the Yellowknife Chamber of Commerce, said he's happy that there is open discussion taking place about whether or not there should be a carbon tax and what outlets the revenue could be used for, yet said the chamber is "110 per cent against a carbon tax."

"At a time when our businesses are not performing at full capacity because we're still suffering from after-shocks from the poor economy, we're feeling that a carbon tax would come in and hurt our efforts to be more competitive with our neighbours," he said.

He said the unsubstantial population of the NWT, approximately 44,000, does not produce enough greenhouse gas to invest in a carbon tax.

"We're such a small drop in a pond. It's not us that's producing all the greenhouse gases, it's the developing countries such as China, Russia, India, Brazil."

He said because of the living environment for people in the North, using heat is a way of life, and a carbon tax would penalize those who choose to live here. From the chamber's discussions, he said they believe the only group that is going to be revenue-neutral through a carbon tax is the government.

"Everything we've seen so far indicates that business and individuals are going to pay more from their pockets. It's going to make the North a very inhospitable place to do business and to live for individuals and for businesses."

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