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Canadians pay dearly in gas taxes – it’s only going to get worse

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5 minute read

From the Canadian Taxpayers Federation

Author: Jay Goldberg

Two thousand dollars. That’s how much the typical two-car family spends on gas taxes every year.

Big numbers can sometimes be hard to process. But the feeling of dread Canadians get as the gas metre ticks up sure isn’t.

Go to the gas station and you’ll see moms filling up the minivan before soccer practice, praying the metre doesn’t tick past $100 so she can afford to take the kids to McDonald’s after an hour of drills.

Or dads fueling up after a week of long commutes to the office, who might choose to only fill the tank halfway in order to have enough money left over to pick up groceries on the way home for Friday night dinner.

All too often, folks will throw up their hands when they see the gas bill, not knowing who to blame. But the truth is a lot of the fault for high gas prices lies at the feet of our politicians.

The average price of gas in Ontario late last month was $1.66 per litre. Out of that total per litre cost, a whopping 56 cents was taxes.

That means that more than a third of the price of gas is taxes, money going out of the pockets of hardworking families and into the coffers of big government.

A family filling up a Dodge Caravan and Honda Accord once every two weeks ends up paying just shy of two grand in gas taxes over the course of a year.

That’s the equivalent of two months’ worth of groceries for a family of four.

Yes, gas taxes have been around for decades. But politicians today, particularly those in Ottawa, keep driving the tax burden higher and higher.

The Trudeau government’s carbon tax now costs 17.6 cents per litre. For that family filling up the Caravan and Accord once every two weeks, over the course of a year, the carbon tax bill alone will reach $604.

And it’s a cost that wasn’t charged at the pump just six short years ago.

If a 56 cent per litre tax bill sounds bad to you now, just wait until you see what Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has in store for Canadians.

Trudeau plans to keep raising his carbon tax each and every year until 2030.

Today, the carbon tax costs 17.6 cents per litre of gas at the pumps. In six years, with Trudeau’s two carbon taxes fully implemented (the second one coming through fuel regulations), that number will be 54.4 cents per litre.

And that will bring the total per litre tax bill to $1.04.

By 2030, that same family filling up the Caravan and Accord every other week will be paying over $1,800 in carbon taxes. And the cost of overall gas taxes per year will hit $3,570.

This is a future Canadians can’t afford. And the federal carbon tax is making that future unaffordable.

The Trudeau government has tried to argue that somehow, by charging a carbon tax, paying bureaucrats to collect the carbon tax, charging sales tax on top of that carbon tax, and then using a magic formula to send some of that money back to taxpayers, Canadians will be better off.

Anyone who buys that should be looking for a beachfront property in Saskatoon.

And there are no refunds for Trudeau’s second carbon tax.

For those wondering, there are politicians out there willing to cut fuel taxes to make life more affordable at the pumps.

Provincial governments of all stripes, from the Liberals in Newfoundland and Labrador to the Progressive Conservatives here in Ontario to the NDP in Manitoba, have cut fuel taxes, saving families hundreds of dollars.

Trudeau’s scheduled carbon tax hikes over the next six years will crush family budgets like an asteroid wiping out the dinosaurs. It’s time for the feds to learn from the provinces and lower costs at the pumps.

That means putting scrapping the carbon tax at the top of the agenda.

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2025 Federal Election

Alcohol tax and MP pay hike tomorrow (April 1)

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By Franco Terrazzano

The Canadian Taxpayers Federation is calling on all party leaders to stop a pair of bad policies that are scheduled to happen automatically on April 1: pay raises for members Parliament and another alcohol tax increase.

“Party leaders owe taxpayers answers to these two questions: Why do you think you deserve a pay raise and why should Canadians pay higher taxes on beer and wine?” said Franco Terrazzano, CTF Federal Director. “Politicians don’t deserve a raise while millions of Canadians are struggling.

“And the last thing Canadians need is another tax hike when they pour a cold one or uncork a bottle with that special someone.”

MPs give themselves pay raises each year on April 1, based on the average annual increase in union contracts with corporations with 500 or more employees.

The CTF estimates tomorrow’s pay raise will amount to an extra $6,200 for backbench MPs, $9,200 for ministers and $12,400 for the prime minister, based on contract data published by the federal government.

After tomorrow’s pay raise, backbench MPs will receive a $209,300 annual salary, according to CTF estimates. A minister will collect $309,100 and the prime minister will take home $418,600.

Meanwhile, the alcohol escalator automatically increases excise taxes on beer, wine and spirits every year on April 1, without a vote in Parliament. Alcohol taxes will increase by two per cent tomorrow, costing taxpayers about $40 million this year, according to Beer Canada estimates.

The alcohol escalator tax has cost taxpayers more than $900 million since it was imposed in 2017, according to Beer Canada estimates.

“Politicians are padding their pockets on the same day they’re raising beer taxes and that’s wrong,” Terrazzano said. “If party leaders want to prove they care about taxpayers, they should stop the MP pay raises.

“And if party leaders care about giving Canadian brewers, distillers and wineries a fighting chance against tariffs, it’s time to stop hitting them with alcohol tax hikes year after year.”

The CTF released Leger polling showing 79 per cent of Canadians oppose tomorrow’s MP pay raise.

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2025 Federal Election

Joe Tay Says He Contacted RCMP for Protection, Demands Carney Fire MP Over “Bounty” Remark

Published on

Sam Cooper

Threats are the tradecraft of the Chinese Communist Party to interfere in Canada … they are intended to send a chilling signal to the entire community‘ Tay states

Joe Tay, the Conservative candidate in Don Valley North, issued a formal statement Monday demanding that Liberal leader Mark Carney remove MP Paul Chiang as the candidate for Markham–Unionville, citing Chiang’s threatening comments and an unsolicited attempt to contact him.

“Mark Carney must fire Paul Chiang,” Tay said in the release. “His threatening public comments were intended to intimidate me, and they must not be tolerated.”

Tay also revealed he has already engaged the Royal Canadian Mounted Police for personal protection, citing growing safety concerns — even before Chiang’s remarks became public.

“This situation has left me fearing for my safety,” he said.

Tay, a Hong Kong-Canadian democracy activist, is wanted by authorities in Hong Kong under the territory’s sweeping National Security Law. In January, Chiang told Chinese-language media that Tay could be brought to the Chinese Consulate in Toronto to collect a one-million-dollar bounty. The remarks, first reported by Ming Pao and widely condemned across party lines, are under growing scrutiny amid allegations of foreign interference in Canada’s 2025 federal election.

Tay confirmed Monday that Chiang made an unsolicited attempt to contact him over the weekend and then posted publicly that he had issued an apology.

“I want to be clear: no apology is sufficient,” Tay said. “Threats like these are the tradecraft of the Chinese Communist Party to interfere in Canada. And they are not just aimed at me — they are intended to send a chilling signal to the entire community in order to force compliance to Beijing’s political goals.”

The Bureau has contacted the RCMP for comment.This is a developing story.

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