When I left for PEI 2 weeks ago on business, gas was already an outrageous $1.39/liter in Halifax so I figured I’d wait to fill up in NB before crossing the Bridge, where it’s usually a little cheaper. It was $1.35. Guess what it was in PEI – the place with all the refineries to keep the price down, the place so centrally located so transport is nothing… $1.27!!! Go figure, Haligonians. Great place to live, but some really crappy controls! —Being Taken for a Ride
This article appears in Apr 12-18, 2012.
As frustrating as it is, the price differential is due to NB and NS having HST while PEI has kept with the old way of GST and PST. Gasoline does not have PST added to it, so in PEI the only sales tax is the GST (at 5%) while we have the honor of having HST at 15%. People were so hoodwinked when HST was introduced.
Halifax is a great place to live? That’s a thinker…
Exactly Bundy….as I was going to say…do you have any idea how much extra tax revenue our wonderful Provincial & federal Governments are reaping in ?
Why should anyone with solid gold pensions & expense accounts, free cars & big paying Gov jobs care if people have to use food banks more , because of increasing power, oil, gas bills not to mention the constantly increasing cost of groceries to make ends meet….The Gov has extra money for bigger per diem’s & more perks for themselves !
Good job government & when you finally kill the golden goose aka taxpayer you’ve been raping by 3 levels of Government you can then have roast goose !
Not exactly sure what they’re going to do after that…& chances are they haven’t thought about it & don’t give a shit, if it has occured to them over their last free meal….probably start a war, that always seem to spur the economy, with the added ‘?bonus?’ of thinning the herd !
Way less medical costs of aging population & fewer pensions to have to pay for ~;)
Sorry Al–you fell for the Gentle Island’s shell game.
While it is true that PEI doesn’t directly charge PST on gas, that doesn’t mean it isn’t there. They just charge an amount roughly equal to the PST in their gas tax. If you look at this chart, you can see that PEI actually has higher minimum gas taxes then New Brunswick: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Motor_fuel_ta…
The real reason PEI had lower prices is because, unlike NB and NS, they don’t change the price each week: http://www.gov.pe.ca/infopei/index.php3?nu… . Since they only change the rate 24 times a year, the costs and savings get balanced out over a longer period of time. They’ll be paying more next time–but we won’t be hearing from you then.
Since Ontario and New Brunswick both have HST, and both pay less tax then we do, your HST argument doesn’t hold water. The only reason the HST would make a difference in NS is because ours is 2% higher!
That, and we, (Redfoots), all have fuel system mods installed in our cars that allow us to burn potato moonshine (min 85 proof) as a viable fuel alternative. And at $4.00 for 10 lbs of spuds, well, you do the math. It works pretty good too except the Island has now had to institute a “No Idle” bylaw due to the increased instances of impaired driving during rush hour stop and go traffic (and in the Timmie’s drive thrus.) The exhaust fumes get a little strong.
During the election in 2007, the Liberals promised to cut the gas tax if they were elected.
Lo and behold, they WERE elected and what’s even more shocking, is the fact that they actually made good on that promise and dropped the gas tax altogether and even put in place a cap on it: “There will be no increase in the tax rate when average pump prices exceed $1 per litre.”
Full article: http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/prince-edwar…
Close, Hooligan. They didn’t get rid of the gas tax, but they did lower it.
First, since 2005, PEI has calculated its gas tax in two parts. There is a flat tax for each litre sold–currently set at 7.1 cents. Second, they charge a rate on each litre that is equal to 10.7% of the average wholesale gas price. That’s the equivalent of the PST. That’s called the ‘ad valorem’ rate. Latiny.
When the Libs got in in 2007, they cut the flat tax by 4.4 cents (from 11.5 to the current 7.1 cents/L). They then capped the ‘ad valorem’ component to a maximum of 8.7 cents. So right now, the 15.8 cents/L you pay in gas tax (7.1+11.5) is the maximum that can be charged on PEI. See this site: http://www.taxandland.pe.ca/index.php3?num…
But here’s where it gets interesting. The 5% GST is charged ON TOP of the provincial taxes and the mark-ups for the tanker driver and retailers (see: http://www.irac.pe.ca/infocentre/documents…). Like so many tax cuts, it wasn’t nearly as big a deal as it seemed. At the end of the day, PEI still has higher overall gas taxes then NB or ON, both of which have the HST. If we cut our HST back to 13%, Bluenosers would only pay around 1 cent more per litre in tax than Islanders.
How many reasons do we need to stop so much suckling at the oil tit?