Printed Circuit Design & Fab Online Magazine - Canada Businesses No Longer Keen on Green?

CANADA – According to a industry reports, a recent survey taken by the organization C-Suite shows that corporate executives in Canada are beginning to show less enthusiasm for carbon taxes, due to economic concerns that will increase the cost of doing business.

The recent survey of CEOs, CFOs and COOs indicates that investment in new technologies is much preferred to government-imposed regulation, and states that only about 47% support a carbon tax, which is down significantly from the 63% who reportedly said it was a good idea in a survey in February 2007. Fifteen months ago, 21% of executives "strongly" supported carbon taxes, and that number is now down to 10%.

Nationally, almost 60% of respondents said a carbon tax would have a negative impact on their business. Only 7% said it would have a positive impact. A majority believes that efforts to significantly reduce greenhouse gases will have a negative effect on Canada's overall economic growth.

The C-Suite survey also claims that executives are less supportive than they were 15 months ago about so called “cap-and-trade” systems that would set up a market for carbon credits, with favorable views of this idea declining by 10% in a little over a year. This was the same reported drop in support for Canada's abiding by the Kyoto accord, which would set strict limits on carbon emissions.

CEO Paul Langston of Toronto PCB maker Coretec is quoted as calling cap-and-trade systems as "a bit gimmicky." Concerning carbon taxes, he said, "people are smarting already from the inflation that is creeping into just about everything we buy and everything we do, as a result of the ramp in oil prices.”

Langston also reports seeing “massive inflation on plastics, film and specialty chemicals."

Langston went on to say that one area where government could have a significant impact on the environment, at a much-reduced cost, would be to better enforce existing regulations. "There are all sorts of opportunities to clean up the environment," said Langston. "There are a lot of…businesses and enterprises out there that are polluting like crazy and never ever pay the piper. We could start cleaning that up first."

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Canada Businesses No Longer Keen on Green?

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