Dear Editor,
My hair is on fire, and it’s caused by gasoline.
While I may be guilty of a bit of an overstatement, I am upset by gasoline prices here in the Lower Mainland and wonder if maybe you might be as well.
Regular car gas has reached a high of $1.55.9 per litre here in Langley. This is the highest it has ever been while just across the border in Washington State, the price is US $0.89.9 per gallon. That gallon translates to 3.78 litres and 23.78 cents or rounded and converted to Canadian dollars up to about 29 cents a litre.
We are paying 54 cents a litre or almost twice that figure in taxes alone. Not only are we paying federal tax but provincial tax then carbon taxes and finally provincial sales tax on all of that.
Now perhaps this is a good thing if it discourages car use and lowers air pollution, but it doesn’t. According to the Canadian Taxpayers Federation quoting the government’s own numbers emissions have increased 11 per cent in the past four years. In the same period the provincial government raked in over $14 billion; taxpayers coughing up $2 billion this year alone. (2,000,000,000 is a lot of zeros and that is exactly what we get in return – zero)
Now all of this might make some sense if the funds were going to programs to alleviate the pollution. Instead they disappear into general revenue and are used to sponsor the government’s left-wing feel good programs at the expense of all of us.
Everyone from commuters to truckers to farmers are paying this exorbitant licence fee to drive their vehicles, and this cost results in increases in inflation that hits you and me in the pocket once again affecting everything we buy – and pay taxes on.
Where and when will this end?
Mike Davenport, Langley City
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• READ MORE: Government eyes taxing companies that cleaned up during COVID
• READ MORE: Canada’s greenhouse gas emissions increased in 2019
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