And the carbon tax will make it worse.
Gas prices surged by 14.2% in April alone, and they’re expected to keep going up.
According to BNN Bloomberg, Dan McTeague from GasBuddy.com “expects gas price increases to continue for 2018, and that consumers could take a hit of $500 to $1,000 per year.”
For the millions of Canadians already struggling to make ends meet, $500 to $1000 more for gas per year will be a big problem, and it will be a serious drag on our economy.
Added to those increases is the cost of the carbon tax, which not only increases the price of gas (and everything else), but also leads to more GST on the already-increased price.
So, on top of price increases we’re getting taxes on taxes.
Wonderful…
And, while Canada once was able to benefit from higher oil prices, that link is being severed due to our severe pipeline capacity shortages and the resulting discount on Canadian Heavy Crude compared to West Texas Intermediate.
Overall inflation continues to increase, with more expensive air travel and higher restaurant costs taking a bigger bite out of consumers pockets. The core inflation rate reached 2.03%, and even that number leaves out gas-prices.
These higher costs would be bad enough if Canada’s pipeline capacity was expanding and if taxes were being kept steady.
But with the Trans Mountain crisis, an investment collapse, and higher taxes every year because of the escalating carbon tax, consumers and our broader economy are being damaged even more than underlying economic conditions would indicate.
Spencer Fernando
Photo – YouTube
