Länder senken vorübergehend die Gassteuern. Sollte Kanada dasselbe tun?

# Pressure mounts for tax relief

The Canadian Taxpayers Federation (CTF) is renewing calls for federal and provincial governments to provide relief.

“The least they could do would be just temporarily suspend their fuel taxes,” said Franco Terrazzano, federal director of the CTF. Ideally, he’d like to see those tax cuts be permanent.

According to the group, total taxes on gasoline – including federal excise taxes, provincial levies and GST – can reach nearly 65 cents per litre in some Canadian cities.

“There are many Canadians out there who were already struggling, and now that you see these gas prices soaring, it’s making life more expensive,” he said.

# International response

While Canada has maintained its current tax structure, other nations are moving to insulate citizens from some of the price shock:

* Italy: The government implemented emergency tax-relief measures, including a 20-day cut to consumer fuel taxes, and offered tax credits to truckers to offset higher diesel costs.
* Spain, Ireland, and Portugal: All have introduced temporary tax reductions on fuel.
* Australia: The federal government has slashed fuel and diesel taxes by half for three months. The states of Victoria and Tasmania have made public transit free to reduce demand at the pump.

“We understand the cost pressures for people are very real,” Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said of his country’s intervention.

# Ottawa remains non-committal

When asked if Canada would follow the lead of Australia or Italy, federal Finance Minister François-Philippe Champagne stopped short of promising tax relief.

Champagne said the government is “following the situation very carefully,” noting that Canada is working with international partners to boost the global oil supply. He pointed to the recent release of strategic petroleum reserves and an increase in domestic oil production as levers currently being used to stabilize the market.

Terrazzano believes the government should do more.

“Canadians need help. Canadians need tax relief. We need the federal government and provincial governments to step up, make life more affordable and cut taxes.

It would be an additional subsidy to oil companies and it’s not as if the federal budget was balanced…

No, that would be economically inefficient.

This is a windfall for governments, as some of the tax is a percentage (GST/HST). If gas is up 50 cents a litre, that’s about 7.5 cents (where I live) new tax revenue for every litre sold. Regardless of excise tax, it’s a ton of new revenue. For usual reasons, governments remain quiet about this massive haul.

No. 

Let the market decide. 

People need to accept some personal responsibility here. 

If you bought a gas guzzling 4 tonne SUV to get you to and from work, that’s on you.

If the government has money to spend it should go into public transit and improving the EV charging network. 

No.

No. We should be investing in infrastructure to get us as off of gas as possible.

Look at all the lefties here begging for higher taxes. They never beg for better services just more taxes for more bureaucracy to take away from those who may have a bit more than they do.

They could start by taxing it less, as the price goes up they can cut the rates proportionally, same tax revenue

Feds should ask industry to fully WFH like they did during COVID.

Yes.

They do it in every province but B.C. 😵‍💫

The taxes generated could remain the same with a gasoline tax cut. At this time, with 2$ a litre gasoline, the feds are pulling in an extra 30 x 35 % more in revenue, that was not budgeted. A reduction in the tax rate could be afforded.