by arthur Weinreb, associate Editor,
May 17, 2004
Like everyone else, Terry Blake was unhappy about the rising cost of gasoline. But the 71-year-old retired gas station owner decided to do something about it. Last week Blake drove into a Simcoe Ontario gas station, put $25 worth of fuel into his car and then gave the attendant $20 while telling her that that was all it was worth. Blake then drove off but not before leaving his giving his name, address and telephone number.
Blake received a visit from the police who told him that he would be charged with theft if he did not pay the additional $5. Blake refused to do so, saying that he would rather go to jail than pay but that problem was undoubtedly rendered moot when his son went to the gas station and paid the amount that was owing.
Terry Blake did what he did because he wanted to make a statement. "If everybody did that, the price would come down pretty darn fast", he said. But as Mary Padyk, the owner of the Esso station pointed out, she was the one who was out the $5 and not the oil company that Blake was trying to teach a lesson to.
The reality is that the price of oil is now over $40 U.S. a barrel and higher prices are being felt around the world. But there is a reason why Canadians who live close to the border are going to the United States and shelling out the more expensive greenbacks to fill up. The reason, as it usually is in this country, is taxes.
The federal government collects 10 cents on every litre of gasoline sold in the form of an excise tax. That same gasoline is also subject to provincial taxes that range from a low of 6.2 cents per litre in the Yukon to 16.5 cents in Newfoundland. Ontario, the so-called economic engine of Canada, grabs 14.7 cents from every litre of gas sold. The federal tax includes the "temporary" one and a half cents a litre that was imposed by Prime Minister Paul Martin when he was Minister of Finance. This surtax was added to help eliminate the deficit which was gone years ago but the tax remains. Much like the income tax, a temporary measure brought in to help fund the debt incurred during World War I, temporary taxes have a way of becoming permanent.
But this isn’t all. In addition to the federal tax, the feds also collect another 7 per cent for the Goods and Services Tax. Not only is the GST applicable to the price of the gas--it is applied to the total price which includes the federal and provincial taxes as well. The GST should really be called the GSTT--the goods, services and tax, tax. a tax is neither a good nor a service--it is a tax. The government is so obsessed with taxes that we pay taxes on taxes and the majority of Canadians don’t seem to mind it in the least.
The government has no shame when it comes to taxing its hardworking citizens and has truly earned its motto--if it moves, tax it; if it refuses to move, subsidize it. Canada is one of the few, if not the only country in the world where the government issues postage stamps and then taxes them. It’s shameful.
although the initial provincial and federal taxes on gasoline are fixed, the amount of GST collected increases with the price and so the federal government directly benefits from high fuel oil prices. Of course they do from time to time make noises about the plight of the poor consumer and send out MP Dan McTeague, the Liberal’s designated hitter on blaming oil companies for the high prices. McTeague cries "collusion" but after a zillion investigations, those big bad companies have never been found to have broken the law. Unlike other designated hitters, McTeague strikes out every time. It’s all a show.
McTeague defends those high taxes with the Liberal Party argument that all that tax money will be returned to Canadians by spending it on such things as health care. Unfortunately this "pay or die" routine is enough to placate a lot of people who tend to disregard the fact that the current government is just as likely to spend their money giving kickbacks to their supporters in Quebec as they are on MRI machines.
McTeague also uses the argument that the GST is negligible. If the non-taxed price of gasoline in Ontario was 60 cents a litre, the GST would amount to 5.9 cents. abolishing the GST, would drop the price from 84.7 cents/litre to 78.8 but this is just small change to Dan McTeague and his cronies.
Terry Blake was right to try and make a point. The owner of the gas station made an easy target but she is not responsible for the price at the pumps. although Blake was polite, he was really no different than those who have recently verbally and occasionally physically abused gas bar attendants as if they got up that morning and decided to hike the price by 10 cents a litre.
If Blake and others really want to make a point, they should withhold a few bucks from what they owe to the federal government. That of course, is a lot more difficult than picking on a small business owner.
Meanwhile the majority of Canadians will go on with their daily routines gladly paying taxes upon taxes.