WHEREAS the BC Vision for Clean Energy Leadership is intended to put British Columbia at the forefront of environmental and economic leadership by developing realistic and achievable goals for energy conservation and efficiency and the Government of Canada has identified the purchase of fuel efficient vehicles as an important aspect of protecting the environment and has created a definition of fuel efficient vehicles; AND WHEREAS the Province of British Columbia has, under its Social Service Tax Act Clause 75 2 and Social Services Tax Regulations Division 11, identified and implemented a process for reducing tax rates for alternative fuel vehicles: THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED that the Union of BC Municipalities urge the provincial government to include fuel efficient vehicles under its definition of vehicles eligible for a reduced tax rate under Division 11 of the Social Services Tax Regulations.
MINISTRY OF FINANCE: The environment is a priority for the government. The February 13 Speech from the Throne expanded on governments commitments regarding environmental stewardship by setting an aggressive goal of reducing greenhouse gas emissions by at least 33 percent below current levels by 2020. A series of initiatives to tackle the challenge of climate change were announced during the speech. Two examples of such initiatives include the creation of a 25 million Innovative Clean Energy Fund to encourage the commercialization of alternative energy solutions and new phased in tailpipe emissions standards for new vehicles sold in the province that will reduce carbon emissions from motor vehicles by 30 percent. Government is considering a wide range of options to achieve its greenhouse gas emission reduction goals, including enhanced incentives for fuel efficient vehicles to complement the existing partial sales tax exemptions of up to 2000 for the purchase of hybrid vehicles. All options will be evaluated on the basis of a number of criteria including support for transformation change effectiveness of the program on behaviour or technology, distributional impacts, competitiveness and productivity gains, best practices in other jurisdictions, public acceptability and other economic, social andor environmental impacts.