Axe fuel taxes to give Canadians a summer break
By Lethbridge Herald on June 1, 2024.
FROM THE HILL
Rachael Thomas – Conservative Member of Parliament for Lethbridge
There is nothing like summer in Canada. Taking a road trip to Calgary to enjoy the zoo, camping out under the stars in Waterton, or spending the day in Writing-on-Stone National Park are just a few of the summer activities many of us enjoy each year. Summer is when memories are made as Canadians take a break from the hustle and bustle of everyday life.
These moments are precious, especially as we experience challenging times. Sadly, the reality is that Canadians are struggling to afford basic necessities, let alone a summer vacation.
This is why my Conservative colleagues and I are fighting to bring back the fun of summer.
We are calling on the federal government to suspend all gas and diesel taxes from Victoria Day to Labour Day to give Canadians a break. The move would suspend the carbon tax, the excise tax, and the GST on fuels, which would lower gas prices by 35.6 cents per litre on average.
I continuously hear from people in the community who are struggling to make ends meet. Due to inflation and taxation, the cost of living is rising, and it is causing the chasm between the rich and the poor to widen. Prime Minister Trudeau promised to grow “the middle class,” but in reality, his policies are making it more and more difficult for Canadians to afford food and shelter, let alone make financial gains.
Families will have to pay $700 more for food this year than they did in 2023. Food banks are finding it difficult to keep up with the level of demand on their doorstep.
One of the biggest changes over the last few years is the rise in use by those who are employed and normally able to get by.
In the middle of this historic cost-of-living crisis, Trudeau and his NDP coalition partners decided to hike the carbon tax by 23 per cent. This is just one step in his plan to quadruple the carbon tax over the next six years, making everything more expensive at the worst possible time.
Taxes on gas and diesel are making everything unaffordable. In fact, since Trudeau took office, fuel prices have surged by more than 50 per cent. The Parliamentary Budget Officer has been clear that most families will pay more on the carbon tax than they receive in the rebate. Our own province suffers from the highest rate of carbon tax, costing the average Albertan family $2,943 per year.
Taking a grassroots approach in government is critical for creating legislation that aligns with those who call Canada home. 70 per cent of Canadians oppose the carbon tax and its damaging effects.
Despite this overwhelming opposition to the carbon tax, the Liberal government refuses to scrap it, showing complete disregard for the will of the people.
Distain for the carbon tax is shared by 70 per cent of premiers too.
Recently, Conservatives moved a motion to have the Prime Minister meet with provincial leaders to discuss the carbon tax and its detrimental impacts. Although the motion passed, Trudeau has refused to give them an hour of his time.
This is just one example of the Liberal government’s out-of-touch policies that are harming families.
Canadians deserve better.
A break from extreme taxation on gas and diesel could save the average family $670 over the summer. And to pay for it, Conservatives are calling on the Liberals to cut back on the $21 billion they spend on overpriced consultants.
Conservatives will axe the tax on everything for everyone in a carbon tax election, but until that can happen, Trudeau must adopt our common-sense measure to give Canadians a summer break.
The Prime Minister might be able to fly off to a luxury resort for a $230,000 taxpayer-funded vacation, but most families are being forced to scale back or cancel their road trips thanks to Trudeau’s out-of-touch inflationary spending and increased taxation.
Canadians deserve relief, not more taxes.
21-20
Rachael Thomas you forgot to mention the Provincial tax on fuel.
Did you get your Federal carbon tax rebate? I am sure you did.
Yes, perhaps the Poilievre Conservatives could push the Smith/Parker UCP/TBA to axe Alberta’s fuel taxes. Can it only be imagined that if the Poilievre Conservatives win the next federal election the Smith/Parker UCP/TBA won’t be able to bash the feds anymore, and vice versa?
Again, Rachael overlooks the fact that the provincial “conservatives”, the UCP, not only reinstated, but actually raised the Alberta Provincial Fuel tax by 4 cents a litre as of this April 01, 2024. The hypocritical stance of Plasticine Pierre Poilievre Conservatives and Rachael in particular to not be petitioning Danielle Smith to ALSO suspend the UCP fuel tax is telling of the true cow flop ethical stances of these Cons.
Just read a report regarding Cons fiscal management disabilities: Multiple experts, economists and even Carbon tax detractors are saying that Plastic Pierre’s cost savings claims are pretty much grossly exaggerated. Essentially folks would have to drive 30,000 – 44,000 kilometres (in an F150 to boot!) over the summer to achieve the savings the Conservatives are claiming that dropping the fuel taxes will save people. Sheesh Rachael… I don’t know about you, but I’d like to stop and get out for a look at the scenery on my vacation, eat at a seaside restaurant, buy a souvenir, put my tent up in a campsite not the back seat of the family sedan, or even stand at the side of the road and whiz with the wind instead of into a bottle between my legs. I don’t want to drive for eighteen hours a day on my vacation to Save-Like-A-Con. You twits are suggesting we drive like demons and take all the fun out of our vacations. No thanks! With math like yours… folks better start getting down on their knees and praying the Conservatives don’t ever get to be the fiscal managers of Canada again. Youch.
yes, a grand road trip to the calgary zoo – of all things, to see caged sentient life. just love seeing humans exploit sentient life, after having ravaged their habitats in pursuit of wealth. ah, the nostalgia…now under attack by nasty fuel taxes. i bet poilievre would not be so callous as to put in place what amounts to impediments to take a long drive to see cages life forms.
I thought it was touching how attached Rach is to our parks system – the same parks that radical neoliberals like her wanted to close or sell to save $6 million a year. The pipeline to nowhere could have funded our parks for 200 years.
But it is more important to blow off some fossil fuels for The Best Summer Ever.
Another monologue from our MP.
As with her leader, her rhetoric is full of “attack, attack, attack” without any tangible other suggestions.
And, as with MAGA acolytes, name calling is becoming the norm.
Her outlook ignores the slightly important fact that climate change is real and is caused in part by us humans. But CC be damned , so long as with get rid of the tax and despite most will have received some form of renumeration over the last few months.
A little thought toward the future , if not for Ms Thomas, but for future generations would be nice, but that will never happen.
All moan and nothing concrete.
Partisanship is alive and well here in Canada . (That fact is aimed at all our political parties, not just Thomas’s.)