Reaction is coming in regarding the Prime Minister's announcement of his plans for the carbon tax.

"We've been hearing about this for quite a while," shared MP for Souris - Moose Mountain Dr. Robert Kitchen. "The Liberals have been talking about it and talking about it and now it's just another point to talk about a little bit more. Basically, they're making it an election gimmick is what they're doing."

"What you get here is a way for the Liberals to purchase your vote with the voters' own money. And we still don't know where the tax is going to be put on. How is it going to be collected?"

The federal government is promising rebates of 90%. The remaining 10% will go towards schools, hospitals, non-profits. 

"It's basically taking your money and giving it back to you. They're giving your own money back to you. And giving back just before the election so you can sit there and consider voting for them."

Dr. Kitchen doesn't feel that this plan will do anything to reduce greenhouse emissions. 

"Ultimately when we look at this we need to look at a number of aspects on how we look at it. The carbon tax agenda that they've been proposing is based on the fact that every country in the world is going to participate in this plan. The only country that is going to participate in this plan is Canada. The big emitters China, India, the United States, the Germans, they're not participating in this."

"If we take a look at BC which has a carbon tax in place, their carbon emissions are going up. And they have the highest gas prices in the country. They're paying $1.64/L."

He would like to instead see more emphasis on coal and clean coal technology such as what is being used at the Carbon Capture and Storage Facility at Boundary Dam. 

"It's efficient and it provides a reliable energy source and it's cheaper. We have the Carbon Capture in Estevan which we all know the huge benefit it provides in taking the carbon out of the air. That is doing something for carbon emissions. Those are the things we need to promote, those are the sort of things we need to be working on."

He likens the carbon tax to putting a shiny object in front of a cat.

"What's that cat going to do? It's going to follow that shiny object. And that's what they're doing here. They're shining a shiny object in front of you which is your own money and trying to get you to follow where that object is going."