No sign of provincial gas tax holiday at some Winnipeg pumps

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 02/01/2024 (639 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

It was a tale of two gas prices across Winnipeg on Tuesday.

Drivers jumping to the pump were either delighted or confused by prices two days into the NDP’s six-month gas tax holiday.

Amid a steady stream of cars fuelling up at a gas bar in East Kildonan, Jennifer Mazur was relieved to see a posted price of 99 cents for a litre of regular fuel.

“I didn’t think that it was true, honestly. I’m glad that it’s here,” she said of the price break while filling up the tank in her Chevy Colorado pickup truck.

The provincial government employee commutes to work from out of town at a cost of a few hundred dollars every week. Tuesday’s fill totalled just over $60.

Mazur added while the break is nice, she worries about how taxpayers will need to make up for the exemption down the line.

“I feel like no matter what cuts or whatever they do to save us money is going to eventually affect us in some other way,” she said.

As of Monday, the NDP government suspended the province’s 14-cent per litre tax on gasoline and diesel for motor vehicles for at least six months, making good on an election-campaign promise last summer.

The tax break will cost the provincial treasury $164 million in revenue and save the average Manitoba family an estimated $250, government figures suggest.

According to GasBuddy, a crowd-sourced fuel-price tracking platform, more than a dozen gas stations across the city were still posting prices close to $1.30 per litre, while most were marked near or below the $1.15 mark.

In the Burrows neighbourhood, Sylvia Klymkiw was the lone customer filling up at Petro-Canada for $1.31 per litre.

The retiree had a gift card for the gas bar and needed to fuel up before grabbing groceries, but didn’t think to look at the posted price before pre-paying.

“I just assumed it was cheaper,” she said.

Klymkiw was surprised by the discrepancy in prices across the city, adding she would have stopped at her neighbourhood pump to fill up, if not for the gas card.

In an emailed statement, the province said purchasers can dispute prices if they feel they’re being charged too much.

“The province has notified fuel sellers about the fuel tax holiday. If purchasers are incorrectly charged the provincial fuel tax during the fuel tax holiday, information can be provided to Manitoba Finance so they may follow up with the fuel retailer,” a provincial spokesperson said.

As of Tuesday afternoon GasBuddy posted the average price of a litre of gas in the city was $1.22, just six cents cheaper than last week’s average price.

Richard Jorgensen, who was filling up a borrowed vehicle Tuesday morning for just under a buck a litre, felt indifferent about the price break.

Jorgensen commutes to Altona three times weekly for work, and would rather see taxpayer cash used elsewhere, such as putting more money toward a crumbling portion of Highway 75, which is slated for partial reconstruction.

“That highway is falling apart; it’s absolutely garbage and I know they’ve tried to fix it but it’s falling apart,” he said.

“So personally, I wouldn’t have a problem with them not doing it and putting the money to where it needs to be put. I don’t really need the holiday.”

While Manitoba removed its fuel tax Monday, Alberta’s government reinstated one there. In December that province announced it would be collecting a nine-cent-per-litre tax on all gas and diesel after a near two-year pause. Prior to the break, Alberta was collecting 14 cents per litre from motorists.

nicole.buffie@freepress.mb.ca