Reconsidering cuts to gas tax

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 17/10/2023 (954 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Midway through the Manitoba election, the NDP lobbed the gas tax cut out of right field. This may have given candidates and canvassers a quick promise at the doorstep to bolster support from commuting voters in the sprawling suburbs of Winnipeg. But it didn’t make a difference in the many rural seats that still voted Progressive Conservative, even though they have fewer transportation options and spend more on gas and gas tax than Winnipeg voters.

Cutting the gas tax for six months has an estimated cost about $165 million. This will save a driver that spends $100 a week on gas approximately $1,300 per year. Nice to have but not really going to make the difference, we need to address the price gouging and inflation we are experiencing, especially when spread over 12 months.

However, a $330-million loss in revenue for a year is significant to government. Consider that the transfer to the City of Winnipeg for the municipal strategic infrastructure is $160 million, including road repairs. Provincial funding towards child care is an allocation of $132 million for 2,400 child care spaces. The entire budget for the Rent Assist rent supplement program cost $41,993,000 to assist 10,957 Manitobans not on welfare to afford their rent. The transfers to the City of Winnipeg for transit services from the province for 100 new electric buses and 135 diesel buses is about $277 million and the operating budget for Winnipeg Transit is $2,182.3 million for 2022, with a $17 million shortfall due to the loss of the 50-50 provincial cost sharing.

Even if bus passes go up to $100 per month, $330 million would provide a lot of bus passes in Winnipeg. This could provide bus passes to every Manitoban on welfare for years. Ensuring people living in poverty have access to a bus pass as part of their basic needs budget is good common sense. People living in poverty need bus transportation to go to the food bank, get to low wage jobs, training and job interviews, or health appointments. Single individuals on welfare live on approximately $220 per month once their rent is paid, but do not have funds for a telephone, internet, or transportation.

From this view, the gas tax cut looks classist, as it prioritizes those who can afford to drive ahead of those who can’t afford to drive or don’t. Well, most tax cuts are classist, since they subsidize middle income and higher income Manitobans while eliminating revenue for services that lower income people rely on. Which, of course, is contributing to the increase in retail store theft, brazen B & Es, that some feel are justified, or to homelessness, addictions and other social problems our province is struggling with. Plus, the gas tax cut reinforces the idea that the bus is for people with lower income and driving is a right, not a privilege, for people who have higher income. This is the case in Winnipeg because of our inadequate and dysfunctional transit system, but in many other cities, low GHG emitting public transportation is for everybody.

Many of us, when faced with increasing gas prices, were incentivized to find healthier options. We ride our bike or walk more, take the bus more, and used carpooling and ride sharing. Having improved supports for these alternatives to gas consumption would meet the climate and just transition test now required by all governments interested in doing their part to address the climate and inequity crisis.

The gas tax cut promise by the NDP was a signal of an individualistic, transactional approach to government rather than a systems approach. Governance and politics however must move beyond this horse-trading approach where support is secured in exchange for shortsighted promises that undermine larger political goals, such as addressing climate change and inequity.

The new government has a challenge of looking at all government, public policy, and budget decisions through a just transition lens. Just transition requires a massive more equitable redistribution of wealth. The gas tax cut is going in the wrong direction.

There are social innovation, tools, principles, and practices that will help the government consider climate, inequity, and poverty together so it can fulfil the need for public policy to bridge the gap between where we are and what we need for just transition and green jobs.

What do we do when a government makes unwise last-minute election promises that are out of step with their stated large goals? Governments can be credited with taking a sober second thought, even when post election they recommit to implementing that misguided promise.

Yes, it is never too late to do the right thing, even when or especially when you promised to do the wrong thing. And in democratic parties and provinces, we can question and disagree with elected leaders and not be punished with violence, or personal attacks or social exclusion. Instead, we can have open public discourse to examine the facts and impacts.

Marianne Cerilli was a MLA and the NDP Environment Critic, now she consults in community development and social innovation. mariannecerilli.ca