Mayors ask for piece of fuel tax pie

OTTAWA (Sept. 25, 2002) — The mayors of Canada’s largest cities last week asked Ottawa to share three cents of the existing 10-cent federal tax collected on every litre of gasoline.

“Cities are generating most of the economic growth in Canada but municipal governments only get a tiny fraction of the resulting growth in revenue,” said Ottawa mayor Bob Chiarelli at a conference of the Federation of Canadian Municipalities. “Sharing just three cents a litre of the ten cents already being collected by the federal government will generate billions of dollars to help meet the revenue needs of our cities.”

The federal government charges 10 cents per litre in excise taxes, in addition to the GST, an average of 3.5 cents per litre.

“In the greater Toronto area alone, this adds up to $670 million a year,” says FCM president Jack Layton, a Toronto City Councillor “The federal government should share part of what is collecting from motorists in our cities.”

In a statement, the mayors said they need the revenues to pay for transit systems and maintenance of the transportation infrastructure “that is generating the billions of dollars that the Government of Canada is collecting in our communities.”