Manitoba spent $91,000 on misleading gas tax ad campaign
The Canadian Taxpayers Federation is criticizing the Manitoba government for spending $90,547.91 on a disingenuous ad campaign highlighting the government’s new gas tax rate of 12.5 cents per litre, according to documents obtained by the Canadian Taxpayers Federation.
“Taxpayers should not be paying tens-of-thousands of dollars for a government spin campaign,” said Gage Haubrich, CTF Prairie Director. “It’s extremely disingenuous for the government to brand its gas tax hike as a cut when taxpayers are paying more gas taxes in 2025 than they were last year.
“The government should have kept the gas tax at zero if it wanted good press.”
The Manitoba government cut its 14 cents per litre gas tax to zero for the entirety of 2024. The government hiked the tax up by 12.5 cents per litre on Jan. 1, 2025.
In the lead up to the gas tax hike, the government ran a taxpayer-funded ad campaign with billboards featuring slogans such as “Permanent gas tax cut starting January 1st.”
The new 12.5 cents per litre gas tax is 1.5 cents per litre lower than what taxpayers were paying in 2023, but it’s still 12.5 cents per litre higher than what taxpayers were paying for the entirety of 2024.
The NDP election platform said that the gas tax cut would remain in place “while inflation remains high.” Since 2020, the price of everything in Manitoba has increased by 19 per cent.
Because of the Jan. 1 gas tax hike, families are paying about $9 in the gas tax every time they fill up a minivan and about $12 when they fill up a pick-up truck compared to 2024.
In total, a Manitoba family filling up a minivan and a pick-up truck once every two weeks will pay about $550 more in gas taxes in 2025 compared to 2024 because of the gas tax hike.
It was previously reported that the government budgeted $180,000 in total to advertise the gas tax hike and the government’s year-long freeze of Hydro rates.
“Instead of being misleading about how much Manitobans are paying in gas taxes, the government should actually make life more affordable by bringing back the gas tax cut,” Haubrich said. “Manitoba families having trouble affording the basics need lower taxes, not a deceptive taxpayer-funded ad campaign.”
A Manitoba family making $75,000 per year pays more in provincial taxes than similar families living in British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan or Ontario.
Photo of taxpayer-funded billboard:
