The Canadian Taxpayers Federation is calling on Prime Minister Mark Carney to cancel plans to hike fuel taxes next month.
CTF Federal Director Franco Terrazzano told a news conference in Windsor on Wednesday that Canadians can’t afford to pay more at the gas pumps while paying higher prices for everything that is trucked to store shelves.
In April, the federal government temporarily suspended its fuel tax on gas and diesel due to global price shocks sparked by the U.S.-Israeli war in Iran.
The federal government is planning to hike its fuel tax back up to 10 cents per litre of gas and four cents per litre of diesel on September 8.
Terrazzano says the message to Prime Minister Mark Carney is simple: don’t make life more expensive, don’t hike gas taxes.
“That will make it more expensive for people to fuel up, to drive to work, and to take their kids back to school. The fuel tax would also increase costs on diesel and increase costs for truckers, and that means Canadians will pay more for everything trucked to store shelves,” he says.
Terrazzano says the federal government brings in around $6 billion in gas tax revenue a year, but there are more than enough ways to save money to make this gas tax cut permanent without ballooning the debt.
“No more spending six figures on airplane food when the prime minister travels abroad. You have to cut the cost of the bloated federal bureaucracy. The PBO, the parliamentary budget officer, projects it’s going up by another $10 billion this year. You have to end corporate subsidies; that’s more than $10 billion annually,” he says.
According to the Canadian Taxpayers Federation, the federal fuel tax hike would cost a family fueling up their minivan once per week about $390 annually.
Leger polling that shows 63 per cent of Canadians oppose the tax increase.