Langley drivers will soon be paying 17 cents per litre in tax to TransLink, on top of all the other gas taxes they pay, including the 5.56-cent B.C. carbon tax (on gas) and 6.39-cent tax on diesel fuel.
It is likely that more and more of them will choose not to pay the TransLink tax, because they will choose to fill up in Abbotsford, or cross the border and fill up in the U.S. Even with the Canadian dollar slipping, gas is cheaper in the U.S.
This isn’t good news for operators of Langley gas stations, nor is it good news for retailers who are already noticing an exodus of shoppers to the U.S. While the lower Canadian dollar helps keep some people at home, the attraction of buying in the U.S. remains a strong one.
I have a problem with adding two cents more to the TransLink gas tax, primarily because it is so unfair to people in Langley and other areas where transit service is pitiful. People who live here have to buy a lot of gas, simply because they have to drive everywhere.
Many choose to use fuel-efficient vehicles to reduce their costs, but some need larger vehicles for work or family purposes. Drivers pay a tremendous amount to TransLink and get little in return.
Langley City Mayor Peter Fassbender supports the two-cent tax increase. He does so because it will lead to some improvement in bus service in the South Fraser area, along with some road improvements. However, his long-term objective is to actually reduce the gas tax — but only if the provincial government and TransLink can come to some agreement on more stable funding.
He is a big advocate of universal bridge tolling. He’d like to see a toll of about $1.50 per river crossing in the Lower Mainland. This would be far more equitable than the current system, where the Golden Ears Bridge is the only tolled bridge (with the Port Mann soon to follow). This is as unfair as taxing people more for a service that isn’t offered to them.
That’s one source of funding that he believes would provide ongoing, stable funding for TransLink. Working out the details will be a challenge, as bridges have numerous owners. For example, the Port Mann, Alex Fraser and Massey tunnel are all owned by the province, while TransLink owns the Golden Ears and Pattullo.
In some cases, cities own bridges, such as the Queensborough Bridge and several bridges in Vancouver which cross False Creek.
Fassbender also would like to see carbon tax revenue used for transit. This may be an easier goal to attain, if the provincial government abandons the “tax neutrality” it legislated as part of the carbon tax initiative. That called for reductions in other taxes when the carbon tax went up, with most of those reductions in income tax.
At the time, neutrality made a great deal of sense — but that was before the worldwide recession which really hasn’t gone away. The province has been running a deficit since 2009 and the defeat of the HST makes it ever harder for it to get out of that hole.
The carbon tax is already a fuel tax. Give all the carbon tax collected in Metro Vancouver to TransLink, and reduce TransLink’s own fuel tax.
If Fassbender can get some movement in those two areas, TransLink may be able to get beyond its perpetual “cap in hand” approach to funding.
