Fresh after the release of a Manitoba NDP budget that extended gas tax relief, the Saskatchewan NDP is renewing its calls for the same.The Manitoba NDP government announced in its budget delivered April 2 that its fuel tax holiday will be extended until September 30. Fuel tax relief was originally slated to last until June 30. Manitoba is among four Canadian provinces that have suspended provincial fuel taxes.“Saving fifteen to twenty bucks on the weekly visit to the pumps would help a lot of families right now. It all adds up,” said Official Opposition Leader Carla Beck. “The premier has a chance to show that he gets the challenges families are facing. He could suspend his fuel tax today with the stroke of a pen.”Affordability Critic Trent Wotherspoon agreed.“Folks are breaking the bank just to fill the tank,” said Wotherspoon.“It’s just not right for this provincial government to sit on their hands after they made the cost of living worse with their added costs and taxes, especially with so many families facing serious financial stress.”Saskatchewan’s 15-cent-a-litre gas tax is the third highest provincial gas tax in Canada, surpassed only by Nova Scotia and Quebec. Manitoba normally collects 14 cents per litre on gas and Alberta collects 9 cents per litre. Premiers in both prairie provinces have delivered gas-tax relief.The NDP estimates that suspending Saskatchewan's 15-cent-a-litre tax on gas and diesel for six months would save households approximately $356.Last August, Canadian Taxpayers Federation Prairie Director Greg Haubrich called for gas tax relief, saying 47 cents of the price at the pump was a tax of one kind or another. However, at the time the province was expecting a $1 billion annual surplus.High crop insurance payouts and low potash royalties blew away projections, leaving the province with a deficit of more than $400 million.In debate in the legislature last month, Premier Moe pushed back at the NDP demands."Day after day we see this alternate reality standing up before us in the opposition members where they, member after member, ask for us to remove this tax, remove that tax, remove that tax, invest more here, spend more here, spend more there," Moe said."And all the while they’re going to say, why isn’t the budget balanced in the province?"Finance Minister Donna Harpauer offered a similar rebuttal in later debate."I’m very curious how the members opposite would even begin to fund their promises because they have no plan. They criticize, but they have no plan. In order to forgo the fuel tax, what tax would they increase to backfill it? Because that tax goes towards repairing roads. Would we have to go back to repairing our own roads because they forgo that revenue?"On occasion during the previous NDP era, residents in the southwestern corner of the province became "highway vigilantes" and filled in potholes themselves.The Saskatchewan budget predicts a $273.2 million deficit with revenues of $19.861 billion and $20.135 billion in expenses, with fuel taxes providing $521 million in revenue. The most recent estimates of the fiscal year just completed saw $20.383 billion in revenues and $20.865 billion in expenditures. Fuel taxes provided $507 billion.Manitoba ran a $2 billion deficit last year. This year's deficit would have been the same except it will receive an additional $1.2 billion more in transfers from the federal government.
Fresh after the release of a Manitoba NDP budget that extended gas tax relief, the Saskatchewan NDP is renewing its calls for the same.The Manitoba NDP government announced in its budget delivered April 2 that its fuel tax holiday will be extended until September 30. Fuel tax relief was originally slated to last until June 30. Manitoba is among four Canadian provinces that have suspended provincial fuel taxes.“Saving fifteen to twenty bucks on the weekly visit to the pumps would help a lot of families right now. It all adds up,” said Official Opposition Leader Carla Beck. “The premier has a chance to show that he gets the challenges families are facing. He could suspend his fuel tax today with the stroke of a pen.”Affordability Critic Trent Wotherspoon agreed.“Folks are breaking the bank just to fill the tank,” said Wotherspoon.“It’s just not right for this provincial government to sit on their hands after they made the cost of living worse with their added costs and taxes, especially with so many families facing serious financial stress.”Saskatchewan’s 15-cent-a-litre gas tax is the third highest provincial gas tax in Canada, surpassed only by Nova Scotia and Quebec. Manitoba normally collects 14 cents per litre on gas and Alberta collects 9 cents per litre. Premiers in both prairie provinces have delivered gas-tax relief.The NDP estimates that suspending Saskatchewan's 15-cent-a-litre tax on gas and diesel for six months would save households approximately $356.Last August, Canadian Taxpayers Federation Prairie Director Greg Haubrich called for gas tax relief, saying 47 cents of the price at the pump was a tax of one kind or another. However, at the time the province was expecting a $1 billion annual surplus.High crop insurance payouts and low potash royalties blew away projections, leaving the province with a deficit of more than $400 million.In debate in the legislature last month, Premier Moe pushed back at the NDP demands."Day after day we see this alternate reality standing up before us in the opposition members where they, member after member, ask for us to remove this tax, remove that tax, remove that tax, invest more here, spend more here, spend more there," Moe said."And all the while they’re going to say, why isn’t the budget balanced in the province?"Finance Minister Donna Harpauer offered a similar rebuttal in later debate."I’m very curious how the members opposite would even begin to fund their promises because they have no plan. They criticize, but they have no plan. In order to forgo the fuel tax, what tax would they increase to backfill it? Because that tax goes towards repairing roads. Would we have to go back to repairing our own roads because they forgo that revenue?"On occasion during the previous NDP era, residents in the southwestern corner of the province became "highway vigilantes" and filled in potholes themselves.The Saskatchewan budget predicts a $273.2 million deficit with revenues of $19.861 billion and $20.135 billion in expenses, with fuel taxes providing $521 million in revenue. The most recent estimates of the fiscal year just completed saw $20.383 billion in revenues and $20.865 billion in expenditures. Fuel taxes provided $507 billion.Manitoba ran a $2 billion deficit last year. This year's deficit would have been the same except it will receive an additional $1.2 billion more in transfers from the federal government.
