Beam me to Planet Gore !
Posted on 10/07/2008 7:20:20 PM PDT by Tolerance Sucks Rocks
Having tolls removed from a major route in British Columbia, Canada, has taken some of the sting out of the cost of operating a trucking business in that province, but there’s still plenty of sting to go around.
In late September, the government removed a $20 truck toll and $10 passenger vehicle toll from the Coquihalla Highway, which connects the city of Hope to Kamloops, B.C., in the Canadian West.
Provincial officials said that truckers were pleased with the move, and they were.
“Given the price of fuel, truckers are very happy with this,” Bridgitte Anderson, spokeswoman for British Columbia Premier Gordon Campbell, told Land Line.
Truckers welcomed the news but are quick to point out that it was the Campbell government that began collecting a carbon tax on fuel July 1.
Joanne Ritchie, executive director of the Owner-Operators Business Association of Canada, said truckers stand to pay an extra $42 million in carbon taxes in 2009 because of the fuel they consume. The tax is collected on so-called pollutants, including diesel and gasoline.
“The amount will continue to climb as the tax increases annually,” Ritchie told Land Line. “At current consumption levels, the carbon tax will cost trucking $422 million over the next five years.”
Truckers – including Dick Rankins, a dual U.S.-Canadian citizen who runs from the Lower 48 states as well as British Columbia and Alaska – say the B.C. in British Columbia could soon stand for “Bring Cash.”
“It’s another tax and another tax and another tax,” Rankins, a member of both OBAC and the U.S.-based Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association, told Land Line.
“Trucks will burn the most amount of fuel and will pay the most amount of tax,” he said.
So-called non-polluters and “green” businesses will receive payments from the carbon tax fund from the 2.4 cents per liter collected the first year. The amount collected from fuel will amount to 7.2 cents per liter by 2012.
Rankins and others are skeptical about where their hard-earned money will be going.
“I’d be interested in paying it if they were doing something with that money that actually had something to do with clean air,” Rankins said.
PING!
You middle classers need to “pay your fair share” so that big corporations can get the money for being “green”.
Redistribution of wealth, by any other name...
27.25 cents per gallon “carbon tax???”
Wait until 2010 and they’re required to run cow piss (urea) in their trucks!
Corporations don’t pay taxes.
nor do truckers.
Let's hope it doesn't actually come to that.
I sure as hell don’t miss corssing over into BC - I honestly don’t understand how any truckers survive up there. It’s bad enough here for us, even as fuel surcharges have finally caught up with the cost of the fuel. Still damn hard to bid on a run and not lose a little though.
Owner/Operators are becoming company drivers, and being a truck salesperson has got be similar to being a real estate broker these days.
bttt
Left Vancouver, BC almost 3 years ago and went back 2 weeks ago for personal business.
It’s never changed, except for the 2010 Olympics propaganda and construction which they passed on to BC taxpayers who DIDN’T want it in the 1st place. Same old anti-American attitude, same old socialist doctrines (you cant buy beer and liquor anywhere/anytime except govt-owned stores which close at 10 pm PLUS you are FORCED to pay your monthly premium on “free healthcare”). No thanks..I;m waiting for my dose of socialism under Mohammed Obama.
All truckers should strike and let the “people” see how they like it when there’s no food.
How much money were they collecting at the tolls before? Anyone know?
Translation: Taxes will be confiscated from the truckers under false pretenses, and will be distributed among the left wing special interest groups with the most political pull.
$20 Canadian per truck.
Most trucks drive further, or don't drive the Coquihalla. For them, removal of the toll doesn't offset the carbon tax.
This will not help the environment any more than the USA Tobacco Lawsuit settlement money stopped people from smoking.
It's nothing more than the beginning of a MASSIVE PUBLIC SHAKEDOWN. It is only going to get worse.
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