City Notebook: Taxes take the hit as prices soar, even if they aren’t the reason

By COLLIN GALLANT on March 5, 2022.

cgallant@medicinehatnews.com@CollinGallant

Death and taxes are unavoidable, inevitable, but that doesn’t stop the fight against either.

Taxes are in particular focus as gas and diesel prices swiftly rise to record highs this week, but the argument is that the taxes at the pump are “the real reason” prices are so high.

Indeed they make up the biggest share of the price, about 40 per cent depending on the location.

Yet, they’ve been an immovable object no matter which government is in charge, and no matter how many press releases are sent out by the anti-tax industry.

That is defined as myriad business lobby groups and industry associations who are relentless in their attack on taxes as the cause of most problems in Canada today.

They point out again that the carbon tax – which has yet to worm its way into many hearts – is set to rise by another 2-cents per litre in April. That is an indignity in the opinion of many, even though an extra 40-cents is added this week due solely to world markets, and which goes straight to oil companies.

A related group of advocates scored a major win as Canada banned imports of oil from Russia, even though very little oil from Russia is actually imported.

But it’s a win for the increasingly confused arguments from those who want to make Canada (the economy of which is intrinsically reliant on exports) self-sufficient.

Of course, we’ve all recall the concept of ethical oil put forward by oil companies and their surrogates, even though oil companies sign the contracts and could have stopped using terrorist oil all by themselves.

Anyway, now that Russian oil is on the watch list, why not Venezuelan or Saudi crude? And why not a spate of new energy projects? It’s an easy argument to make, and the Conservative Party is certainly making it, even dusting off the “energy corridor” plan that they ran on in the 2019 election.

It seems more sell-able today, but if there’s a national security angle to moving gas to the East Coast for export to allies in Europe, an argument is to be made that the federal government should control it.

It’s doubtful Westerners have another Ottawa-built pipeline when this is suggested.

But a win is a win, and in the current economic climate there are gains to be made on the tax front. For proof, just see any number of comments from CPC leadership front-runner Pierre Poilievre. It’s easy to sell folks on lowering taxes, and folks are buying.

Aligned business groups also strongly pushed for a GST holiday last Christmas to help stretch budgets during the Christmas shopping seasons of the pandemic.

Any chink in the armour of tax policy is a major win everywhere for anti-tax crusaders, lobby groups and politicians.

Once you prove that one can move, it logically follows the others can as well.

In Alberta

Economists predict that if oil stays at US$85 a barrel on average in 2022, the Alberta surplus will be $8.1 billion. It could be twice that this month.

Premier Jason Kenney, another carbon levy critic, announced Friday that he’s asked the treasury board to figure out some relief for motorists out of what’s assured to be a bonanza for provincial coffers due to the oil price that’s linked to royalty rates the province charges.

(Mind you, the natural gas relief program promised in the recent budget turned out to be much less than advertised.)

On a similar note

Locally, arguments for such relief on utility bills are only likely to grow this month as the City of Medicine Hat prepares to release its 2021 annual report. Council passed some items late last month to help Hatters sign on to fixed rates or reduce power and gas use, but there’s a strong current of criticism out there that it doesn’t go far enough.

How will Hatters react when they see the numbers coming out of the power plant last year?

Curling

The Brier started Friday night in Lethbridge and continues through next weekend, and in attendance will be new Lethbridge Herald sports writer Justin Seward, who moves this weekend from his position covering the southeast rural region for the Cypress Courier and Forty Mile Commentator. Best of luck.

A look ahead

Council convenes Monday to discuss the NW Industrial Park plan, and – another thick council package – includes the final parks and recreation master plan and an initial release of the facilities plan.

March 5 marks the two-year anniversary of the first diagnosis of a COVID-19 case in Alberta.

Collin Gallant covers city politics and a variety of topics for the News. Reach him at 403-528-5664 or via email at cgallant@medicinehatnews.com