Bell: Pain at the gas pump! Danielle Smith tells Albertans don't expect a break |
Wait until Canada Day. Wait until July 1. At the earliest.
We have to follow the rules. Rules are rules.
Yes, this is one time where Alberta Premier Danielle Smith is not going to agree with the folks at the Canadian Taxpayers Federation.
The tax fighters want Smith to drop the province’s 13 cent per litre tax at the pump right now.
After all, they say, gas prices are going through the roof, along with almost everything else these days. It never ends,
Alberta has a law where all or part of the 13 cent a litre tax can be taken off the price at the pump if the oil price is high enough for long enough..
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But, without going through all the arithmetic and calculations of how and when Albertans see the tax break, we will just fast forward to the bottom line.
If gas prices stay high you will get relief at the pump July 1 and no sooner. That’s the law.
Nate Horner, Smith’s number-crunching budget boss, says it would not be a good thing to give tax relief “based on price movements over a very short period of time.”
You see, says Horner, the Alberta government reviews prices for every three-month period.
The review for the last three months is done and the average WTI oil price over the 20 trading days leading up to March 16 was $75.25 a litre.
We just missed it. A partial tax break at the pump kicks in at $80 a barrel. Removing the 13 cent a litre gas tax happens at $90 a barrel. At press time, we were over $90 WTI.
You can put away your calculators. Smith defends not giving a break now. Her reasoning? You’re already getting breaks.
The premier says she and her government pushed to get rid of the federal carbon tax on consumers and that cut the price at the pump.
That doesn’t count. That’s like you’re getting punched in the face and the punches stop and you’re supposed to say thank you.
You shouldn’t have been punched in the first place.
Smith also reminds us she cut personal income taxes with the savings for Albertans ranging from $750 to $1,500 a year.
She says taking off the provincial fuel tax at the pump right now would only save people about $200 a year so the income tax cut can deal with that expense and other expenses.
Smith adds if there are “additional remedies” for those “suffering extreme hardship” the government has “done that in the past” and so she doesn’t rule it out.
Smith is also worried about the province’s books, which in the upcoming budget year are ugly with a huge deficit predicted, a sea of red ink.
And, the premier adds, the oil price could go back down quickly if things approve on the Iran front, if there is a cease fire tomorrow.
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“We already know we’re going to be facing a $9.4 billion deficit. We haven’t realized any surplus revenues for the next budget year,” says Smith.
“If there are additional revenues we want to be able to share some of those back to Albertans.”
“I’m more of the view, let’s realize surpluses before we we spend them rather than let’s hope we have them.”
At press time, oil prices were surging as tensions between Iran and the U.S. heat up further.
A new report figures oil prices are expected to remain high for the rest of the year.
Also, Smith and her government fields other questions on affordability and the premier takes to social media Thursday telling us Alberta has the strongest take-home paycheques in Canada.
For an ink-stained wretch, along many others in many other jobs where your paycheque is not even remotely close to keeping up the cost of living, the news is no consolation.
Meanwhile, in the House of Commons, Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre points out to Prime Minister Mark Carney and the Ottawa Liberals how Canadians are paying way more at the pump for gas than Americans.
“Under this Liberal prime minister, Canadians pay the equivalent of 26 cents a litre more than the Americans. Will he stop ripping off Canadians at the pump, get rid of these Liberal taxes so Canadians can get moving?” asks Poilievre.
Carney stands up and does his usual speechifying many boomers in Ontario and elsewhere simply swoon over.
The prime minister says he and his Liberals are lowering energy costs for Canadians.
They are protecting Canadians. They are empowering Canadians.
Yes, the words don’t actually have to mean anything, they just have to sound nice.
The reality, of course, is many of us who don’t work in the fancy-pants jobs have been getting screwed over for far too long.