Premier Wab Kinew’s 14 cents-per-litre fuel tax cut on gas and diesel is sticking around and that means Manitobans will keep on saving at the pumps.

Kinew recently extended his gas tax cut for an additional three months. The cut was scheduled to end on Sept. 30, but now taxpayers can count on saving until at least Dec. 31.

The extension means that a Manitoba family filling up a minivan and a pick-up truck once every two weeks will save about $147 more over the next three months.

In total, that same family above will have saved about $600 by the end of this year because of the gas-tax cut. Those who drive more for work or need bigger vehicles will save even more money.

About $340 million is staying in taxpayers’ pockets this year instead of being taken by the provincial government.

Those savings are the reason a fuel tax cut is such a useful tool to help make life more affordable. Cutting the gas tax doesn’t take any extra bureaucracy, there are no cheques to be sent out, no government pencil-pusher needs to design a new program or a tax credit. The government simply stops collecting the tax and Manitobans save.

Since the tax has been cut, Manitoba has had the lowest fuel tax burden and lowest fuel prices in the country. The cut directly contributed to a lowering of the inflation rate, according to the Manitoba government.

And Manitobans felt those benefits. Before the gas tax cut was extended, polling showed that 71 per cent of Manitobans wanted the government to extend it.

But with the cut now scheduled to expire at the end of the year, Manitobans could be missing out on future savings if the government doesn’t extend the gas tax cut again. And gas is only set to get more expensive.

The Trudeau government is doing the best it can to make Manitobans pay more at the pump. Ottawa’s carbon tax currently costs 17 cents per litre of gasoline and 21 cents per litre of diesel. But, come April 1, 2025, the federal government is hiking it to 21 cents per litre of gas and 26 cents per litre of diesel.

Kinew needs to keep his gas tax cut going to keep Manitoba fuel the most affordable in the country and save taxpayers from the full pain of the carbon tax.

The government needs to keep Manitobans saving too, because it already takes so much from taxpayers. A Manitoba family making $75,000 per year pays more in provincial taxes than a similar family in British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan or Ontario. That includes the savings from the gas tax cut.

Manitobans are paying more than their fair share towards government coffers. It’s up to the government to tighten its own belt and find some budget savings so Manitobans can keep saving at the pump.

The fuel tax cut is saving taxpayers about $340 million this year. That’s only 1.4 per cent of what the government is spending. The government isn’t failing to spend on priorities because it lacks money, it’s because the government is wasting too much money.

The government of Manitoba spends about $522 million per year on corporate welfare on average, according to the Fraser Institute. Axing handouts like that would be more than enough to keep Manitobans saving with the fuel tax cut.

Kinew is right to keep taxpayers saving at the gas station. He needs to keep his gas tax cut around and stop wasteful spending, not jack up taxes on Manitobans.