Hardly a day goes by where you don’t hear someone grousing about the high price of gas in these parts.
It seems to go up in a shot at the slightest hint of trouble in the markets but when the market price goes down there isn’t a similar precipitous drop.
That leads to all kinds of theories on why we pay so much for the precious resource but we tend to forget that one of the most onerous items on gas itself are the taxes.
From the provincial carbon tax to all the federal taxes it’s a major source of why our gas costs more than in the States.
That’s why it’s at least somewhat heartening to hear some of that money they collect off of us is being pumped back into the North Okanagan.
The most exciting item is a $1.8 million project to turn the old landfill site on Pottery Road into a recreational facility that will include a disc golf course – literally giving an old dumping ground new life for a new generation.
There’s also funding for a disposal management system, an eco depot, a new transit bus to serve Enderby/Armstrong and for a regional Official Community Plan.
“We’re only bringing your tax money back to you,” said Okanagan-Shuswap MP Colin Mayes.
True. But it’s nice to hear a politician state it so bluntly.
It’s also nice to see the money come back to the North Okanagan and it’s even nicer to be able to point at something, like the Pottery Road recreational site, in the future and say “that’s where all those gas taxes went.”
Or at least a portion of them.
