HAD YOUR FILL OF TAXES YET?

Grit policies leading to more pain at the pumps

That pain at the pump that you are feeling is causing squeals of delight in Ottawa as taxes from record high gas prices fill federal coffers.

Inflation, an increased carbon tax and extra GST revenue may be taking their toll on your bank account, but they’re ensuring Justin Trudeau’s Liberal government can keep up its high spending ways.

The price of gas hit record highs across Canada over the weekend and still might go even higher.

The Trudeau government has been dismissive of the idea that the spike in the price of gas is anything but the result of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. While the impact of a war and the ensuing sanctions on a major player in the oil market is helping drive up the cost of gas, we’re also doing it to ourselves. Proof of this can be seen in comparing prices on both sides of the border.

While motorists in Buffalo N.Y., were paying the equivalent of about $1.51 per litre, just across the border in Niagara Falls, Ont., the price sat at $2.09 per litre. In Vancouver, prices had dropped to $2.25 per litre after topping $2.30 over the weekend, but in Bellingham, Wash., just over the border, the price worked out to $1.68 per litre.

Calgary and Edmonton has some of the best gas prices in Canada at just under $1.75 per litre, but head south and you would have paid the equivalent of $1.55 a litre in Great Falls Montana.

The main differences are taxes and our low dollar.

Hiking the carbon tax in the middle of an energy and affordability crisis was madness. Trudeau, though, is more concerned about being seen to do the right thing on climate than the impact his tax has on family budgets.

When gas spiked during the 2008 financial meltdown our dollar was on par with the American dollar; now we’re lucky to buy it for 70 cents on the dollar. Gas price analyst and former Liberal MP Dan McTeague said the Canadian dollar no longer rises when the price of gas goes up because we’ve ceased to be a place where oil and gas companies want to invest.

“The devaluation of the loonie amounts to a hidden tax or loss of purchasing power equivalent to 30 cents a litre,” McTeague said last week.

McTeague, president of Canadians for Affordable Energy, said that the cancellation of pipeline projects from Energy East to Northern Gateway – and even the delays on Trans Mountain – are costing us. He said if these projects were online already, as they should have been, Canada would be producing an extra three million barrels of oil a day.

“This would easily displace Russian blackmail barrels over Europe and drive oil down $40 a barrel saving us another .40 cents a litre,” McTeague said.

Add in the extra carbon tax – it was increased April 1st – plus the extra GST revenue and you can see why our prices are so high. GST revenues alone are filling government coffers.