The Parliamentary Budget Officer released his latest economic and fiscal outlook yesterday, which included some not unexpected things like warnings that the deficit might be larger than anticipated, or that debt servicing charges might start to increase, or that some government programmes may wind up costing more than stated in the budget. All fair game. But it was his analysis of the federal carbon price that really go the Conservatives (and their mouthpieces) excited – and as usual, it was an exercise in cherry-picked numbers that ignored the context of what was actually said.
Parliamentary Budget Officer calculates the Liberal carbon tax will reduce GDP by $10 billion/year by 2022. https://t.co/FUsaUKmZMF
— Pierre Poilievre (@PierrePoilievre) April 23, 2018
In this particular case, the headline number was that by 2022, when the full $50/tonne price is implemented, the price could – and one has to stress could– cost the economy 0.5 percent of GDP, or $10 billion. And this had the Conservatives, and Pierre Polievere in particular, whooping at the government about how this was going to kill the economy. The problem is that the report goes on to say that if provincial governments actually recycle those revenues through reducing corporate or personal income taxes, for example, it would nullify that effect. Not that things like context or nuance, or even truth will dissuade a political talking point. University of Calgary economist Trevor Tombe explains more here:
Also, the effect on GDP of using regulations and technology subsidies to achieve an equivalent emissions reduction will come at a *larger* cost. If CPC opposes pricing, they're implicitly preferring more than 0.45% in costs since they agree with the target.
— Trevor Tombe (@trevortombe) April 23, 2018
Paging @kirst_nicole. Despite the #kirstengraphs nature of this graph, the absolute gap is also larger than most other estimates I've seen. Wonder what's different. @enviroeconomics? pic.twitter.com/GvhAKKhRCO
— Andrew Leach (@andrew_leach) April 23, 2018
Yes, seeing that now. I first read it as 0.5% lower gdp growth, which led me to believe maybe they weren't recycling revenues or something. Thanks.
— Andrew Leach (@andrew_leach) April 23, 2018
Digging deeper into the footnotes, the PBO didn't construct their own estimates, they just used the results in 'Choose Wisely' and scaled up the effect of moving to $50.
— Trevor Tombe (@trevortombe) April 23, 2018
Also in the PBO report: recycling carbon revenues by reducing income taxes "would essentially offset the impact of the carbon levy on the Canadian economy in 2022." #cdnpoli
— Trevor Tombe (@trevortombe) April 23, 2018
1) They're using estimates from @EcofiscalCanada. So, not new.
2) Using CTax rev to lower income taxes, "would essentially offset the impact on #cdnecon". To ~0.1% instead of 0.45%.
3) Regulations and tech subsidies (your preferred tools) tend to have *higher* costs. https://t.co/5tpoVSYfcI
— Trevor Tombe (@trevortombe) April 23, 2018
Tombe also found this bit of the report overlooked by other media reports:
PBO also releasing updated estimate of TPP+CETA https://t.co/k2Qg8fpcuw Fully phased-in, the two deals are a ~$1.8-1.9 billion tax cut affecting 23% of #cdnecon imports.
— Trevor Tombe (@trevortombe) April 23, 2018