We hear it all the time. "It's unfair that my tax dollars are being used to subsidize the purchase of your car" or something to that effect. My approach is to smile and say: "Actually you've got that wrong. My tax dollars are subsidizing your car". Of course they look surprised. I go on to explain that oil companies get lots of tax breaks and give aways from governments and to make matters worse some of their messes are cleaned up at public expense.
There are a lot of jobs in the oil industry and no democratic government can easily survive the damages by implementing policies that result in job losses. The oily ones play that card for all it's worth.
The figure that I've heard is that the Canadian government spends somewhere around 6 billion dollars a year in exploration grants and subsidies to the oil companies. The IMF thinks it may be much higher. The federal gov't even bought a contentious pipeline project just to try to keep Alberta happy just to win enough votes for the next election. (It won't work). So the amount spent on EV subsidies is chump change in comparison. How do you like them apples?
There are a lot of jobs in the oil industry and no democratic government can easily survive the damages by implementing policies that result in job losses. The oily ones play that card for all it's worth.
The figure that I've heard is that the Canadian government spends somewhere around 6 billion dollars a year in exploration grants and subsidies to the oil companies. The IMF thinks it may be much higher. The federal gov't even bought a contentious pipeline project just to try to keep Alberta happy just to win enough votes for the next election. (It won't work). So the amount spent on EV subsidies is chump change in comparison. How do you like them apples?
