• Feds still profiting at the pumps - Ottawa's silence speaks GST volumes
  
• CTF encourages big oil to explain latest price hikes vis-à-vis U.S. market indicators

OTTAWA: The Canadian Taxpayers Federation (CTF) today continued to speak to the issue of high gas prices and high gas taxes. The CTF has led the charge in blowing the whistle on tax gouging at the pumps and has conducted five successful annual gas tax honesty campaigns.

Big government is still the biggest profiteer at the pumps -
" Over the past 18 months motorists paid, on average, between 32% and 45% in taxes at the pumps per litre of fuel depending on where they live," stated CTF federal director Walter Robinson. "And Ottawa still collects almost $4.8 billion in annual gas taxes and returns less than 3% or $119 million for road construction and highway development."

"Even if we were to factor in everything that the feds have loosely termed as infrastructure - like canoe museums and bocce ball courts - the Chrétien administration returned less than 10% of what it has collected at the pumps in the last decade," added Robinson. "This kind of profit margin makes big oil look like a corner store operation by comparison."

Don't forget about Ottawa's extra GST haul -
" From 1999 to 2001, Ottawa's annual GST haul from gasoline sales increased from $867 million to $1.1 billion due to higher gas prices since GST is charged as a component of total pump price," said Robinson. "Could this explain Ottawa's deafening silence on the gas tax file "

But big oil has some "splainin" to do -
Mr. Robinson also acknowledged mounting consumer frustration with big oil. "In the United States, prices have shot up by 24 cents/gallon the last two weeks or roughly six cents/litre. Yet Canadians have seen increases between 12 and 20 cents/litre in the same period," stressed Robinson. "If it wasn't so maddening it would be as comical as an I Love Lucy rerun. But taxpayers and motorists are fuming like Ricky Ricardo and big oil has some 'splainin' to do."

Robinson concluded: "What Canadian peculiarities account for a price hike over a fortnight that is four times greater than what our American friends have experienced This is the pivotal question in a continentally integrated commodity market "