Ottawa, ON – Today, the Hon. Pierre Poilievre, Leader of His Majesty’s Loyal Opposition and the Conservative Party of Canada, sent the following letter to Prime Minister Mark Carney, calling on him to cancel his Labour Day gas tax hike and remove all tax on gas until at least Canada Day 2027:
Prime Minister,
When Conservatives first called on you to take all federal taxes off gas and diesel until the new year, Canadians were already struggling with the cost of living.
Since then, things have not gotten better. They have gotten worse.
Gas prices are rising again. Your Liberal taxes and regulations continue to force Canadian drivers, truckers and families to pay 17.1 cents more per litre than Americans. Meanwhile, the OECD confirmed that Canada continues to have the highest grocery price inflation in the G7, with food and energy driving inflation higher.
Yet rather than provide Canadians with more relief, you plan to bring back another 10 cents per litre in taxes on gas and four cents on diesel after Labour Day.
That would punish more than the driver filling up the family car or the trucker delivering goods. A tax hike on fuel is a tax hike on everything. It raises the cost of every meal, every home and every product moved by truck or train.
It has also placed pressure on our businesses. 58 per cent of small businesses say rising fuel costs have negatively impacted their business, including 75 per cent of those in the Atlantic provinces. That has driven almost half of businesses to consider permanently closing this year.
Canadians need relief for longer, not another tax hike.
That is why I am calling on you to cancel your planned Labour Day gas tax hike and remove all taxes on gas until at least Canada Day 2027. At that time, we can review whether to extend it further.
Together, these measures would save Canadians up to 25 cents per litre and a family as much as $1,200 a year. They would lower prices at the pump while making groceries, homebuilding materials and everything else transported using fuel more affordable.
It would allow factories to move goods to market, competing with our American neighbours on a level playing field. It would save small businesses money they can use for higher wages and lower consumer prices.
It would lower the cost of shipping food, saving Canadians at the grocery store.
Cancel your Liberal tax hike, extend the relief until at least Canada Day and let Canadians keep more of the money they earn.