Alberta Pump Price Skyrockets Over Next Two Years with Carbon Tax and Gas Tax Hike
- Average family of four will spend $888 on gas taxes in 2018
- Average yearly gas tax bill will more than double from 2014 to 2018
- Stop charging sales tax on top of excise taxes – axe the tax-on-tax
CALGARY, AB: The Canadian Taxpayers Federation (CTF) is calling on Alberta’s NDP government to stop the carbon tax and reverse the gas tax increases imposed in the last PC budget.
Upon being elected, the NDP did not reverse the PCs’ four cent/L gas tax increase imposed in March 2015. The carbon tax on top of that means the percentage of the pump price that is purely tax will increase from 21 per cent in 2014 to 36 per cent in 2018.
“The NDP government opposed the PCs but apparently not the PC gas tax hike,” said CTF Alberta Director Paige MacPherson. “Now they’re doubling down with the carbon tax. The pinch at the pumps is just one of many ways the carbon tax will hit Alberta families.”
The amount of gas taxes paid annually by the average Alberta family of four will more than double from 2014 to 2018, costing families $888 per year by 2018.
In 2018, the average Albertan family will spend an extra $483 more per year on gas taxes alone.
“With unemployment on the rise, we certainly won’t see family incomes doubling between 2014 and 2018. Yet their gas tax bills will,” said CTF Alberta Director Paige MacPherson.
The CTF is also calling on the federal government to end the practice of calculating the HST/GST after provincial and federal excise taxes have already been charged. This “tax-on-tax” was highlighted as part of the CTF’s 18th annual Gas Tax Honesty Day, with press conferences held across the country from Vancouver to Fredericton.
"A few extra cents per litre may not sound like much, but it adds up quickly. Eliminating the tax-on-tax would save Canadians a total of $1.6 billion each year," said CTF Federal Director Aaron Wudrick.
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 2016 Canadian Taxpayers Federation Gas Tax Honesty report, click here.