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Information readily available online shows that the current carbon tax rate on natural gas is $1.51 per gigajoule.

That means someone would need to burn in excess of 33,000 gigajoules a year to accumulate a bill of $50,000.

To put that in perspective, the average home uses 106 gigajoules annually. As such, any facility that uses 33,000 gigajoules would be consuming the equivalent natural gas of about 310 homes.

Although Glasgo noted her church may be bigger than most, it’s hard to imagine how it could amass a bill that large without some very serious insulation deficiencies.

It would have to be the holeyest church in Alberta.

As in full of holes. To the point that parishioners would likely need a parka to sit through a sermon.

To look at it another way, $50,000 would be the approximate carbon tax burden for a 33,000-square-metre commercial facility with an average emissions intensity. That footprint would be bigger than the Terwillegar Recreation Centre in southwest Edmonton with its four rinks, swimming pools and massive gymnasium.

Before ratcheting up the rhetoric, Glasgo should have checked her facts.

Or issued a quick retraction.

The whole controversy could have subsided right there but, when faced with considerable backlash to her claim, Glasgo’s initial response Monday was to double down.

In a post on Facebook — possibly written with the help of UCP communications staff — she stood by the $50,000 figure and went on the attack against carbon tax supporters.