It was only going to be a 2.4 cent per litre increase. Even for a large gas tank, the increase would only cost about a dollar, maybe a little more, to fill the tank. Nevertheless, on June 30, the day British Columbia’s freshly minted carbon tax laws went into effect, I decided to fill my tank - it would feel good to avoid the tax, even just once.
As I sat in line at the pumps, I realized many others have the same twisted sense of satisfaction as me when it comes to the tax man. It’s just the way we are. I bet gasoline sales across the map of BC set new records on June 30.
But not within the Municipality of Oak Bay. You see, there are no gas stations in Oak Bay. It’s just the way they like it, and residents don’t seem to mind the minor inconvenience of motoring over to nearby Victoria to top their tanks.
Soon, they won’t have to. No - it’s not because a service station is coming to town. It’s because the ‘Zenn’ is - or may be, if Council proceeds with its plan to pass the necessary bylaw to make it legal.
In case you haven’t heard of the Zenn, it’s an all electric, zero emission car that runs entirely on battery power, thereby rendering service stations redundant - at least for Zenn owners They are manufactured in Canada but until very recently, British Columbia classified them as slow moving vehicles - the same classification as farm tractors. That meant they couldn’t be operated on roads unless they displayed a large orange triangular sign, an overhead amber light and continuously operating four way flashers. Needless to say, sales in British Columbia were slow!
Given British Columbia is the first jurisdiction in Canada to introduce carbon tax legislation, its treatment of this zero emission, albeit slow moving, car seems highly peculiar. But apparently the government ‘got it’, because it changed some regulations to permit operation of the Zenn on municipal streets without impersonating a tractor, subject to two conditions.
First , it can only operate where the maximum posted speed limit does not exceed 50 km/h - the ’pedal to the metal’ speed of the Zenn. Second, the municipality in which it operates must authorize it. That is exactly what Oak Bay proposes to do.
If it doesn’t delay, Oak Bay will be the first municipality in British Columbia where one will see the Zenn silently gliding about on city streets. And in my driving experience there, keeping up with the traffic will pose no problem for Zenn drivers.
There is one drawback. Oak Bay is only one of 13 neighboring municipalities in the entire Capital Regional District (CRD) of Vancouver Island, so for the time being at least, usage of these nifty little machines will be confined to Oak Bay’s borders.
But to many Oak Bay residents, that's OK. They don't mind not leaving their beautiful little city, and with their Zenn, they won’t have to. Not even for gas.
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