As our federally elected politicians prepare for their summer break (from what exactly, you may ponder), and then return to their toils in September – I would like to take the opportunity to announce a new holiday in their honour.
It’s called, “Don’t Worry, be Happy Day!”
This is because there is nothing to worry about so, ya know, just be happy!
How can we be happy that inflation is just a three-syllable word, even though it is approaching a three-digit range of surreal levels?
Should we be happy that gasoline pump prices stumbled and were at $1.99/Litre for about an hour or so this week?
And, while gasoline, diesel, and jet fuel prices may surely continue to climb, the tax portion does as well.
This is of course because the higher prices go, the more GST/HST revenue is funneled to the Canada Revenue Agency. Believe me, they are interested in keeping it that way. As I have harped on in these reports, and on national media outlets many times, the GST/HST is a percentage tax on a tax. It is not a fixed amount.
So, fix it! Just set it at a fixed amount like the federal excise tax, which for gasoline is nationally priced at 10 cents per litre. And, like the carbon tax, which is today 11 cents per litre.
Anyone who doesn’t see that current gasoline and diesel prices are key drivers of the inflation mess we all find ourselves in today is, in my opinion, is not from this planet. Similarly, any politician who can’t see that a temporary fix to the problem is right in their top drawer is on the same planet!
Our politicians, the ones we voted into office, simply need to control the only factor that they can for the sky-high fuel prices we’re all paying, and that’s to reduce or suspend taxes.
But as Natural Resources Minister Jonathan Wilkinson said earlier this week, “The federal government has no immediate plans to cut prices at the pump with a temporary reprieve from the federal gas tax.”
We can’t control the supply and demand of crude and its prices at the global card table. And we can’t increase supply of gas or diesel by increasing refinery runs because there is no more room to increase refinery outputs.
All of us fully realize that any suspension of taxes will come back to us in one form or another. But we need some recognition by all levels of government that there is a problem here in River City and we are drowning and calling out for help!
Because we’re all worried, not happy.
– Roger McKnight – B.Sc., Senior Petroleum Analyst
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