gold dam

The most important environmental taxes in Canada (as listed by the OECD) are fuel excise taxes, which are levied by both federal and provincial governments. In principle, provincial fuel taxes have been used to fund roads and highways, although there is no clear linkage between the tax and the spending. A federal fuel excise tax of 10 cents per litre was originally introduced to encourage self-sufficiency in Canadian energy markets. Today, the tax is called an environmental tax, as is the tax on air conditioners for automobiles, but these taxes are only very loosely linked to environmental objectives. There is no connection between the amount of tax and the amount of external environmental damage caused by the product or the amount of money spent by governments on remediation.
Proposed higher taxes on energy, which is believed to be a prime cause of environmental damage, have proven to be unpopular and difficult to fashion in effective ways.
Proposals such as cap-and-trade schemes are being discussed and have elements of a form of taxation, but these measures have not been widely adopted in Canada or elsewhere. British Columbia has imposed the first general carbon tax at $30 per tonne to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Alberta has a $15 per tonne carbon levy on large business emissions in excess of a threshold. If one country (or political subdivision) or a few countries adopted tax measures that raised energy costs while their competitors did not, international distortions would obviously be created. However, securing global agreement on appropriate measures has proved difficult in the past and will continue to do so in the future. Governments will likely introduce new environmental taxes given the focus on global warming in the coming years, but the pace of change may be slow.
Chapter 11 provides an overview of resource levies, and chapter 10 examines environmental taxation.
Municipal and Other Taxes
The largest source of tax revenue for municipalities is real estate.