Canadian Taxpayers Federation marks Gas Tax Honesty Day
Posted May 17, 2012 7:45 am.
This article is more than 5 years old.
BURNABY (NEWS1130) – Today, the Canadian Taxpayers Federation is revealing just how much tax you pay when you fill up your tank.
Gas Tax Honesty Day is an annual event where the federation breaks down exactly how much you pay to various levels of government each time you put gas in your car.
Motorists on the Lower Mainland pay the most tax on fuel in the country, which critics call a war on drivers.
“It just amazes me how readily TransLink, the mayors and other levels of government will just jump back into the drivers’ pockets and take more and more money out,” says BC Director Jordan Bateman.
He feels our country-leading gas taxes can be blamed in large part on TransLink.
“TransLink levels a 17 cent a litre gas tax,” explains Bateman. “You add that to the federal government’s 10 cents a litre, plus the five per cent HST, and then you add in the provincial government’s take and you come up to about 48 cents a litre.”
That 48 cents a litre is last year’s figure.
Later today, Bateman will be at the Super Save Gas on Kingsway in Burnaby to reveal this year’s number and he hints a key threshold on how much tax we pay has been broken.
Nationally, the average two-car family pays approximately $1,225 in gas taxes every year.
