Frequently Asked Questions

Why have you launched this campaign which seems to oppose the Canadian Taxpayers Federation Gas tax campaign?

Answer by Russell McOrmond

First it should be noted that some of the people who are part of this campaign such as myself do not in general oppose the campaigns of the Canadian Taxpayers Federation. In fact my personal business is currently sponsoring the hosting of the Fair Vote Canada website, while Troy Lanigan is both on the executive committee of Fair Vote Canada as well as the National Communications Director of the Canadian Taxpayers Federation with democratic reforms being part of the CTF mission statement.

There are also parts of the campaigns which are in common, such as the idea that road construction and maintenance should be paid for out of gas taxes rather than the current case where this is paid for out of income and property taxes.

Where we diverge very quickly is that we believe that not only roads, but the FULL COSTS of both the forms of energy (fossil fuels, etc) and modes of transportation (Automobiles, trucks, etc) should be paid by the users and not out of general income or property tax revenue. There are considerable costs currently not being paid for by the users and unlike the CTF campaign, our campaign has the ultimate goal of reducing taxes and moving to a more user-fee system, rather than just reducing one form of tax at the expense of others.

Would a tax shift such as this burden the poor more than anyone else?

Answer by Russell McOrmond

It is true that those who have lower income also would tend to have less expensive homes (thus lower property taxes) and lower income to tax for income taxes. This issue can be dealt with in ways other than subsidizing all users of energy and transportation, and instead focusing help only on those who need it. One easy model to look at is to have energy and transportation use the same model as we do for housing.

With housing nobody nobody cries fowl because a home owner must pay their own heating, electricity and water bills, and this attitude needs to be the same for transportation with users paying for their own roads, policing and other related costs.

With housing we also have projects to give a hand-up to those who are disadvantaged in the form of subsidized housing. This subsidy goes to the users who need it, not all home owners.

The comparison between energy/transportation and housing also brings up another important point : it should be considered a national embarrassment that our governments are subsidizing fossil fuel burning road users while we have a huge number of homeless people in our country. Our campaign might also help open up a dialog within our country about us getting our priorities straight.