Vive Le Canada

Rising Price At The Pumps - Government Helpless?

Posted on Thursday, August 18 at 01:39 by whelan costen
"There's no reason for the federal government to profiteer when consumers are hurting," Harper said during a stop at a country fair in Musquodoboit, N.S. "They could knock the GST off of the excise tax. They could knock the GST off of gas above a certain price level. These are the things we propose." But Goodale said gas prices at the pumps are changing so quickly that a reduction on taxes probably wouldn't make much of a difference. Submitters note: 'Wasn't it the Conservatives that brought us the GST in the first place?' Another telling quote from the article, 'Quebec Finance Minister Michel Audet said he can't afford to reduce gas taxes because the government loses $22 million when the price increases by five cents per litre. "We don't have any power over petroleum producers," he said Wednesday following a cabinet meeting. "In addition, I don't have the means to reduce the taxes." Read the rest: http://www.mytelus.com/news/article.do?pageID=canada_home&articleID=2008318 [Proofreader's note: this article was edited for spelling and typos on August 18, 2005]

Note: http://www.mytelus.com/...

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  1. by avatar Milton
    Thu Aug 18, 2005 11:20 am
    Lets see, the cost of a <b>US gallon</b> of gas in Venezuela is 12 cents , the cost in Saudi Arabia is 91 cents per <b>US gallon</b>, the cost in Alberta is $4.00+ per <b>US gallon</b> ( 4 litres in a US gallon ) . In Venezuela the tax per barrel of exported oil is between 13% to 30%, in Alberta it is approx 1%. What is wrong with this picture.

  2. by Anonymous
    Fri Aug 19, 2005 4:50 am
    > ( 4 litres in a US gallon )

    Actually, 1 US gallon = 3.7854118 liters

    If you can't get that right, why should anyone pay attenttionto the rest of your figures?

  3. by avatar Milton
    Fri Aug 19, 2005 2:18 pm
    Oh sorry, I mistook quarts for litres and I suspect that this was one of the reasons why the Canadian government imposed the metric system on us. They wanted to confuse us.

    But anyway anon, thanks for correcting my conversion error and go (explicative deleted) your hat.

  4. by gorian
    Fri Aug 19, 2005 3:47 pm
    The world is really divided into two tribes -- the number fickle and the rest of us.

    As for the price of gas, things won't really change in Canada until we can get it up to $2 or $3. At that point, people like Margaret Wente will climb down from their SUVs and enter either Smart Cars, Hybrids, or public transit -- I won't even bother to hope for the miracle of everybody getting onto a bicycle.

    G

  5. by avatar Milton
    Fri Aug 19, 2005 4:00 pm
    Here is the link for my price quotes above <a href="http://money.cnn.com/pf/features/lists/global_gasprices/">CNN</a>.

  6. by Anonymous
    Fri Aug 19, 2005 4:53 pm
    Drive less?

  7. by F Smith
    Sat Aug 20, 2005 2:27 am
    What Mr Goodale is saying is that the government has no control over gas prices and has no desire to try to do anything about them. There will be a lot more people living on the streets of Toronto this winter I'll warrant.

    Frank

  8. by Anonymous
    Sat Aug 20, 2005 6:50 am
    How about blowing up gas stations? sounds good to me.

  9. by avatar Milton
    Sat Aug 20, 2005 5:37 pm
    I don't see how blowing up infrastructure is going to make anything other than a big mess and cause the deaths of minimum wage workers.

  10. by Anonymous
    Sun Aug 21, 2005 3:01 am
    Of course they would leave first. A big mess gets peoples attention to the issue. We are talking oil companies here.

  11. by gorian
    Fri Aug 26, 2005 8:39 pm
    That's like blowing up brothels because prostitution has become a problem. It would be much more conducive to develop alternative means of transportation. For instance, in Toronto a group of utopians has dreamed up <a href="http://velo-city.ca/"> Velo-City </a> -- a project that would enable commuters a functional alternative to driving AND add a beautifully futuristic architecture to the city. Projects of this sort will become increasingly feasible with rising fuel prices (particularly as the money feeds into Federal and Provincial coffers). With that in mind, I would love to see an additional 10 to 20 cents/litre tax added to the current prices, with money directly funding alternatives. There is no need for road tolls if we build the user fees into the vehicle's operation itself (it would have the doubly positive impact of rewarding fuel-efficient vehicles, and punishing Margaret Wente). G



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