Our collective gas problem
The corrosive socio-economic effects of more expensive gasoline and heating oil, jumping to $2.25 per litre in a few short years, has many in the Province of Nova Scotia clutching their chests with one hand and their wallets in the other. Nova Scotia has it worse off than any other region in the country, worse off than even maritime New Brunswick, which lowered its Provincial taxes at the pump and raised other taxes. Still, it is a nightmare for this region, especially the Maritime region, and specifically bluenosers.
Nova Scotia Premier Rodney Macdonald was on air with me on Monday and declared that there would be no lowering of the gas tax as it would take away from road maintenance; Liberal leader Stephen McNeill meantime, wants to lower the gas tax by a few cents; NDP leader Daryl Dexter says let us apply the HST to the commodity price instead of taxing tax – a “tax cascade” the government terms it. Tax on tax certainly is an insult to an over-governed injury. But, like any bureaucracy, they grab what they can. They tax the tax.
The fact that Premier Nova Scotia Premier Rodney MacDonald isn’t making any adjustments at all to the gas pump taxes is not a wise political move. Just like gas price regulation itself (which many dislike, but opposition leader Dexter also told me he supports), regulation provides a physical demonstration that government cares and is taking action on the essentially un-actionable: commodity prices. To that end, Macdonald stated to me that “gas prices are beyond our control”. I think we all know that.
Whether or not Stephen McNeil would be wise in lowering the gas tax or not, clearly fiddling with the status quo, with way the taxes are applied currently where the higher the gas price goes, the more money the Province makes, is politically unsustainable. Sooner or later, there will be protests and demonstrations and vandalism. Just wait till the price goes to $1.50 per litre this summer and beyond. A new definition will be given to “road rage”. This is a crisis situation that is only going to get worse. Our lives will soon be transformed in very real ways by the looming gas attack on our living standards; a corollary to inflated oil and gas prices is food costs. Economists predict an across-the-board 3.5 per cent increase in our grocery bills – and that is just next year.
What is driving up fuel and food costs has to do with external forces beyond our control. Right now, we cannot make changes fast enough in terms of cutting back on our fuel usage or applying new technologies to make a difference. The coming erosion of our living standards is something we will have to face.
China and India and other developing counties are having their extreme impact; the relative decline of America and the resource competition for oil and water and arable land as a result of these new players and new geographic, demographic, political, and environmental pressures makes this a “Brave New World” of untold and unexpected proportions and consequences — and if you think this is bad, just wait until war breaks out with Iran – we will be the ones on the bicycles, not the Chinese.
If you keep an eye on the international headlines, and speak to the experts, it is fairly easy to conclude that we will not be able to avoid a conflict with Iran over their desire to go nuclear. Oil will go crazy. You can throw away your car keys.
In his novel, Brave New World, Aldous Huxley’s dystopia had one saving grace – Soma. It was the opiate of the masses. It narcotized the pain of it all. The folks in the book had a drug better than whiskey or nicotine.
In Nova Scotia, at the pumps, contending with the highest gas prices in the land, we are already operating without anesthetic.
April 26th, 2008 at 4:34 pm
Well Andrew, when things don’t go our way, we either blame or ask the government to fix it, even though we caused the problem with our big trucks and drive troughs, all we do is waste waste waste. We waste our water all the time and we waste our food. Just look at the dumpsters behind the restaurants, half eaten plates. We had a homeless person here in Moncton (eddie the bum - RIP) who would eat out of those dumpsters and he would have shrimp and steak every night. Scientist have been telling us for years we were consuming and wasting to much energy but we wouldn’t listen, so here we are pointing fingers at everyone and of course blaming the government. If the government lowers the gas tax it will only prolong the inevitable. So let’s take it like a man, refigure our lifestyles and in the end maybe all of this; it would be for the best of all of us.
April 29th, 2008 at 3:30 pm
A carbon tax, tell me you’re joking. We have the highest fuel taxes in
the country now, with 40cents worth of tax on every litre we buy, and
we’re expecting gas to hit $1.50 per litre this summer and over $2.00 in
the next year or so, and people want to add more taxes? Are they thick?
Don’t you remember what happens with gas taxes; they aren’t actually
used to build roads. Remember the tire tax? It’s almost never used to
get rid of tires. Now a carbon tax, it will never be used to offset
carbon. The politicians aren’t stupid, we are.
We tax fuel here in North America, they tax fuel heavily in Europe, but
in many developing countries they subsidize fuel, in China they subsidize fuel so that it only costs the consumer 10 cents per litre. These subsidies are what is driving up consumption globally.
If paying a carbon tax is what people need to feel guilt free, then go
talk to China and other countries which subsidize fuel and see if they
will drop their subsidies and intoduce a carbon tax. Good luck with that. Just leave us alone.
May 15th, 2008 at 9:37 am
I do not yes use bio-fuel, but I hopefully will with-in the next 12 months. No-one ever discusses the subject. I have no idea why. Anyone reading this should check out the diesel alternative, i will add the canadian website.
http://www.plantdrive.ca/
Used Vegetable Oil as a fuel source.