CARBON (CONT)

"This is the budget that is going to support the significant throne speech commitments from last year, in particular the carbon tax."

Not everyone was equally supportive.

"I think they were pretty quick to pull out the stick when it comes to accomplishing environmental objectives," said Laura Jones, vice-president at the Canadian Federation of Independent Business.

"We know from our surveys that over 80 per cent of business owners are already taking action to get cleaner," she added, saying that is happening without a tax in place.

"I don't think this is the best way to accomplish the goal of getting more environmentally friendly," she said, explaining she would rather have seen a greater focus on education and incentives.

Niels Veldhuis of the Fraser Institute also took issue with the plan.

"This was a lost opportunity for British Columbia in terms of improving the investment climate," he said.

"We had a real and historic opportunity to improve our investment climate, to ensure our prosperity going forward by aggressively reducing business taxes and personal taxes."

For example top earners in B.C. pay taxes almost 50 per cent higher than their counterparts in Alberta, he said.
Instead of reducing taxes they chose to "change the mix," he said.

Though the 2008 budget is clearly a green one, health care also figured heavily into the spending, accounting for more than one third of overall spending.

The government says it will also reduce taxes above and beyond the carbon tax offset by $481 million over three years.
It will also spend $787 million over four years to strengthen social services.

Following the prudence that has become a trademark of Taylor's budgets, the finance minister is putting aside about $1 billion to deal with any surprises, such as larger than expected financial troubles in the United States.

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