[tobiasu]

You can't wait for Canada to put a 100+% tax on gas-powered vehicles? I have bad news for you...

[embro]

To be honest, that would make my day, I wish gas was triple the actual price.

[pearkes]

Do you live in the city with public transportation? Then I would definitely agree.

Otherwise, Canada can be really big and rural. Not having access to car (or in this case, potentially not being able to afford it) can be really damaging to your career, lifestyle, social life.

I grew up in the interior of BC 9 hours East of Vancouver. All of our driving policy (new driver rules and licensing) was dreamed up by street racing ridden Vancouver politics. The result was really damaging in small communities, as 18 year olds could only drive with 1 passenger. In effect, this eliminated young peoples ability to designate a DD. People didn't stop partying...they just drove.

Point being, policies designed for city residents don't always fit out in the rural areas.

[dmm]

Another way to see this is that everybody is subsidizing rural lifestyles by bearing the cost of their externalities.

[Avshalom]

You know that "rural" is where all of your food, energy and building materials come from right?

[dmm]

Close the externalities and the prices of food, energy, and building materials will adjust accordingly. I have absolutely nothing against rural people or lifestyles but if you choose to commute two hours a day so you can live in the country, you should pay the true price of your lifestyle to society.

[twoodfin]

And you've done the math on that? Waving the "externalities" wand isn't magic to justify any policy you'd like.

[dmm]

Close the externalities and the market will figure it out.

[twoodfin]

Again: Show your math. How do you figure out what the "externality" is? What's to stop you from saying it's $500 per barrel of oil consumed if that would result in your desired policy outcome?

[kalleboo]

In Sweden, this is partially solved by giving you a tax rebate on your commute. So people who live rurally and need to commute into a city get some money back.

[dghughes]

Well then you're also hoping for your food to triple in price because what do you think the farmers and fishermen here in Canada use for energy to power their vehicles?

Or is that just typical Toronto center of the universe thinking?

[embro]

I'm glad you bring that up, yes if we triple price, we can expect food and most things to skyrocket as well. Apart from giving them a rebate or some sort of big tax credit, I don't have a solution to bo honest.

I do not live in Toronto or even nearby, population of my city is 130,000. The public transportation is ok only if you don't have kids.

My point is, a majority of people don't even consider public transportation or electric cars, hybrids are a joke, except for the Chevy Volt.

The government incentives have been increasing but they don't seem to convince a lot of people.