• Average Alberta driver paying $80 in carbon tax on gas this year, will rise to $200 by 2022
• Nearly 31 per cent of the pump price in Alberta is taxes
• Ottawa taking $125 million from Albertans in gas tax-on-tax this year

EDMONTON, AB: The Canadian Taxpayers Federation (CTF) is calling on Alberta’s NDP government to stop the carbon tax, and on the federal government to axe the gas tax-on-tax. The tax burden on drivers was highlighted as part of the CTF’s 19th annual Gas Tax Honesty Day, with press conferences held across the country including one in Edmonton today.

Currently, Alberta’s carbon tax is costing the average driver an $80 on their gas bill in 2017, rising to $200 in 2022, when the carbon tax will increase to 11 cents per litre.

“Albertans are paying one out of every three dollars at the pump on gas taxes alone,” said CTF Alberta Director Paige MacPherson. “With the carbon tax, that cost will continue to rise for Albertans year after year.”

In Alberta, provincial taxes on gas have increased 94.3 per cent in the last two years, between the PC government’s gas tax hikes and NDP government’s carbon tax.  

“By 2022, Albertan drivers will be wasting $200 per year on an unnecessary, expensive carbon tax in addition to other gas taxes,” said MacPherson. “Families are being pushed to the limit.”

Albertans are also sending more money to Ottawa. By the end of 2017, Canadians will have paid $13.3 billion toward the “temporary” federal deficit elimination gas tax, introduced in 1995 and kept in place even after the deficit was eliminated.

In addition, by applying GST after provincial and federal excise taxes have already been charged, the federal government will collect nearly $125 million from Albertans alone in gas tax-on-tax in 2017.

"A few cents a litre may not sound like much, but it quickly adds up,” said CTF Federal Director Aaron Wudrick, “Eliminating this tax-on-tax would save Canadians a total of $1.4 billion each year.”

The CTF is calling on the federal government to end the practice of charging this unfair tax-on-tax. 

The CTF’s annual Gas Tax Honesty Day report shows that taxes make up most of the price difference at the pump from province to province, and even city to city.

To read the 2017 Canadian Taxpayers Federation Gas Tax Honesty report, click here.