March 8, 2000 For Immediate Release

The University of Northern British Columbia Economics program is presenting a public lecture on Monday, March 13th about environmental tax shifting. In essence, tax shifting advocates shifting the tax burden away from activities that encourage jobs and investment and onto activities that pollute or demonstrate a wasteful use of resources.

Amy Taylor, a research associate at Simon Fraser University, will visit UNBC to meet with Economics classes and give the public presentation. She is a co-author of a British Columbia discussion paper on environmental tax shifting. The concept is relatively new to North America but has been tried in Europe: the Netherlands, for example, has reduced personal income taxes while increasing electricity rates.

The presentation on Environmental Tax Shifting will be Monday, March 13th, at 7pm in Conference Centre Room 6-211. Ms Taylor is also available for media interviews on Monday at 10am and 1pm.