REGINA – The Canadian Taxpayers Federation has released its latest Gas Tax Honesty Report, and in conjunction with that is calling for Premier Scott Moe and his government to get rid of the provincial gas tax.
They also continue to call on the federal government to continue to keep the fuel tax removed past Sept. 8, when it is due to be reinstated.
Gage Haubrich, Prairie Director of Canadian Taxpayers Federation, made those calls while standing outside a Shell station in south Regina for a media event on Tuesday.
He noted that “every time you head to the pumps in Saskatchewan, you're paying three different taxes. And it could soon be four if Prime Minister Mark Carney keeps his plan in place to hike the federal gas tax back up in September.”
Haubrich pointed to a “15 cents per liter provincial gas tax, a seven cents hidden carbon tax embedded in fuel regulations, as well as 7.7 cents of GST per liter on top of it all.”
“So that means when you do your full fill up, you're paying about $21 in tax to fill up a minivan and just about 30 bucks in gas taxes when you fill up your pickup truck, but that could get more expensive soon.”
Haubirch pointed to the plans by Prime Minister Mark Carney to put that 10 cent a litre tax back on in September. He also pointed to the recent poll commissioned by CTF released last week showing 63 per cent of Canadians want the tax cut to stay off, with the highest opposition in the Prairies.
He said they have seen through economics and through past experience that generally by cutting the gas tax, the savings go to taxpayers.
He pointed to graphs showing in Saskatchewan that it could be $10 for a car, $11 for a minivan and $15 for a pickup truck every time people fill up.
“If you're the type of guy who fills that truck every week, that's almost $800 in savings over the course of an entire year. So if the premier is looking for a way to make things more affordable with the crazy rise in changes in gas prices, we're seeing cutting the provincial gas tax is a good way to do it as well.”
If the federal gas tax comes back on Haubrich estimates that to be an additional $9 for a minivan, $10 bucks for a pickup truck and around $6-$7 for a sedan added to every single fill up.
“And then that 30 cents a liter that Saskatchewanians are right now paying at the gas pump in taxes will jump to about 40 cents,” Haubrich said. “We don't want to increase that pain when it gets to September.”
But sometimes the expected relief doesn’t happen. Haubrich was asked about the situation when the federal break came in April, when gas prices initially dipped down by 10 cents, but by the next week was back up even higher by 15 cents.
“I think the biggest thing to point out there is actually would have been 10 cents even higher if that relief wasn't done,” Haubrich said. “We're seeing things in the Middle East change week by week that are changing gas prices. And all that is happening would be 10 cents more expensive.”
He adds that the situation is different for Saskatchewan residents compared to people in major cities in the East.
“If you live in Toronto, live in Montreal, you can take the train, you can take the bus. There's no train between Regina and Saskatoon. You have to drive. And the provincial government needs to do whatever it can to make that a little bit more affordable than it is right now. And cutting the gas tax is the way to do that.”
The province has frequently come under pressure to remove the provincial gas tax but has argued it cannot afford to forego the revenue because it goes to road and highway construction. Haubrich countered by saying there is no legislation that shows that gas tax revenues has to go to roads.
“It all goes into one big pile,” he said.
Haubrich said the government should always be focused on providing as much affordability as possible.
“Things like gas tax cuts are really easy because there's no bureaucratic program involved. People simply just start saving at the pump. And as well, due to these high gas prices, these high oil prices, the Saskatchewan government is going to be taking in a substantially higher revenue this year than anticipated, and they should use some of that extra revenue to either reduce the borrowing or do some tax relief in terms of a gas tax cut. All these tax hikes are just killing them, just regular folks.”
