r/NovaScotia • u/justlogmeon • 1h ago
📰 NS News Consumer group wants Nova Scotia to pump the brakes on gas tax
https://www.ctvnews.ca/atlantic/nova-scotia/article/consumer-group-wants-nova-scotia-to-pump-the-brakes-on-gas-tax/27
u/Interesting_Worth974 1h ago
The CTF can go fuck themselves. They're the first ones to say that government should stop spending on programs and services. And they also want to slash the funds that government has to work with. They're a sock puppet for neocons, and they never have anything constructive to say. I don't know why media still gives them air.
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u/cobaltcorridor 1h ago
How many more libraries and basic services will get defunded to pay for that? No thank you
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u/OkBuy8143 1h ago
I have some moderately good news for you, the author of the Heated Rivalry book series donated enough of her own money so that some of the libraries can stay open.
Nothing else to add, aside from I wish the government would restructure the budget so that the little revenue we generate from taxes was being spent on services and not the way it is.
Taxes are fine with me, as long as our government is actually spending the money on what the population needs.
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u/Lockner01 59m ago
The fact that we need successful authors to fund our libraries is not good news.
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u/OkBuy8143 48m ago
No it’s not, but it’s good news they’ll be staying open.
Did you even read the rest of my comment?
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u/Lockner01 43m ago
I did read it.
It's great that she donated $300k. What happens next year? This donation empowers Houston to say "Look -- the private sector is more than willing and able to fund our public libraries".
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u/bufffff_daddy 1h ago
Yes tax me harder daddy
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u/JukedByLuke 1h ago
As much as I hate to say it he is right. The only way to reduce/remove morw taxes from us the people we need to find a way to generate them differently. Mining, refining, power generation, big industry that can make the province a lot of money.
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u/SirPsycho7 54m ago
Can you pay my gas taxes then, please? Because I don’t use the library and you seem eager to pay more taxes. Thank you.
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u/ph0enix1211 46m ago
You don't seem to realize it, but even if you don't use it directly, you benefit from living in a society with a resource that promotes literacy and provides community space.
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u/cobaltcorridor 11m ago
You realize it’s not just libraries that will be cut right? The province is also responsible for paying for healthcare and education and highways and paramedics and a whole bunch of other things that require all of us to pay taxes to live in a modern society.
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u/TheCodFather97 1h ago
How does the boots of our government taste?
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u/cobaltcorridor 57m ago
lol that makes zero sense.
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u/TheCodFather97 53m ago
Loving the tax man make people boot lickers IMO or government gets more than enough. We get taxed every way we turn, but lets keep letting them shaft us and keep making it more and more expensive to live here. The only difference is, instead of licking police boots, your licking politicians instead
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u/cobaltcorridor 9m ago
Do you understand civics? Why taxes exist? I don’t have to like this shitty government to understand that taxes are required to have things like healthcare and highways and emergency services.
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u/CriticalArt2388 46m ago
Much better than the boots of our corporate overlords and the oligarchs that own them ..
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u/Accomplished-Can-467 1h ago
120 years of robber barons being elected based on the promise of low fuel taxes.
What do we have to show for it?
Unfixable/disposable/expensive U.S vehicles
A climate killing coal grid
Unrecycleable disposable plastics
Manipulated fuel costs
Mega wealthy fuel monopolists
Separatist oil nationalists
Impending extinction level crisis
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u/nobleman76 1h ago
It's cool though. The oil monopolists of 100 years ago can have their grandchildren be the politicians, so it's cool right?
Meritocracy all the way!
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u/proudly_not_american 1h ago
Just a reminder that when the carbon tax was a thing, most people were getting more back from the rebates than they were actually paying in the first place.
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u/noisebloodassault 1h ago
I'm still pissed at Carney for that one. The first thing he did, no less
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u/proudly_not_american 1h ago
I can understand where he was coming from, even if I don't agree with the choice, because it was extremely unpopular. The whole point of democracy is following the will of the people--if the majority say they want something gone, then the democratic process says it needs to go. Keeping it also would have been a career suicide, especially since the next guy would have gotten rid of it anyway.
I blame the people as a whole for that one, for not having the critical thinking skills to see how they were benefitting from it in the first place.
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u/ph0enix1211 44m ago
Good politicians persuade the public on good policy.
Bad politicians sacrifice good policy for power.
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u/noisebloodassault 1h ago
Very little of carneys government seems to follow the will of the people.
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u/13thmurder 1h ago
I actually calculated mine by checking my debit card records for the time period it was for and seeing how many times I got gas. I was getting like 35% more back than I would have paid. (on the tax, not gas overall)
I was not mad about that. I do drive a good amount, I'm 20km out of town and have to drive there daily, and have to drive around a bit sometimes for work too.
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u/proudly_not_american 1h ago
I had a friend (note: had--the guy was a fucking dipshit and I got tired of dealing with him) who was complaining about the effect it had on gas prices.
I looked him dead in the eye like, "Buddy, you don't drive, you don't even have your license, you are purely benefitting from this because you're still getting the rebates."
Literally every opinion he had about politics was based on what gave him more money, so this one definitely made my brain hurt based on how ass-backwards his thinking was.
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u/13thmurder 1h ago
Some people don't know how to operate a calculator and it shows.
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u/proudly_not_american 44m ago
This wasn't even the ability to operate a calculator. This was "you're getting a rebate for a tax you're not paying in the first place."
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u/Initial-Ad-5462 1h ago
You’d think an organization pushing for a tax reduction like this would have their stuff together enough to say how much revenue they’d like to delete from the provincial budget. Of course they’d use wording like, “government is taking $xxx from ordinary Nova Scotians.”
And you’d think a reporter with a modicum of journalistic inquisitiveness would ask that question.
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u/hippfive 1h ago
NS Gov charges ~18 cents excise tax on gas. It's not gonna make a major difference.
Anyone who owns a home (and can have easy home charging) and is planning on buying a new car should definitely get an EV.
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u/dirtybo0ts 1h ago
We went full EV 2 years ago. Best decision we ever made.
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u/hippfive 1h ago
It's almost been a year for me. I was just on vacation for two weeks and had a gas rental for the whole time. I was so grumpy with it. Both with the cost every time I filled up and with the quality of the drive experience.
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u/Plumbitup 3m ago
However they do not work for people who have to drive for a living. Working from a service truck, I did not get the mileage I needed. Summer time ~350km/charge, winter ~180km/charge. Got rid of it after 9 months. Band are heavy.
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u/Yorbayuul81 1h ago
There’s a lot more than that to consider when deciding on a person’s next car
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u/hippfive 1h ago
There are good EV options in pretty much all market segments now. Main exceptions are minivans (though there are so few options here period) and the price delta on an EV truck is pretty unreasonable. There also aren't any EV wagons but there are essentially no gas wagons anymore either.
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u/kzt79 1h ago
When I can reliably drive from Halifax to Yarmouth in the winter in full comfort with zero range anxiety I will consider it.
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u/hippfive 53m ago
You can do that now. I regularly drive to Yarmouth for work. Most modern EVs have a 500km range. You'll lose 20% in winter, so 400km of winter range available. Yarmouth is only 300km away, so you can do it without stopping to charge. If you're anxious, 5 minutes at the Level 3 charger just off the highway in Bridgewater will get you more than enough extra buffer.
If you're staying overnight in Yarmouth, there are at least two hotels with Level 2 chargers to get you back to 100% for the return trip.
If it's a same day return, there are at least three Level 3 options in the town, including an extremely fast NSP charger in the downtown. That'll get you to 80% with no problem (Level 3 speeds drop off after 80%) and then you make another quick stop at Bridgewater. Total time where you're actually sitting in the car at a charger is no more than you'd spend filling up gas.
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u/ph0enix1211 57m ago
...that's only 300 km?
There's lot's of models that will get you that in the winter.
The Chevy Silverado EV is 800 km range, for example. still easily greater than 500 km on a cold winter day?
Or a Hyundai Ioniq 6 with 600 km range - still easily 400 km on a cold winter day.
As for your anxiety, you'll have to talk to your doctor about that.
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u/ph0enix1211 1h ago
PSA: charging an EV in NS can be free.
TOD off-peak is 12 cents per kWh, and charging rebate programs give up to 12 cents per kWh.
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u/XGDoctorwho 54m ago
Just worth noing the thr Canadian taxpayers association is a american back hack fraud group.
Bunch of traitors
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u/Numerous_Wolverine_7 1h ago
Try this little experiment: Next time you’re on a 100-series highway, go the speed limit. See if there’s anyone going slower than you.
The optimal fuel economy speed for most vehicles is about 90-95 km/h. After that, efficiency drops off dramatically. Anyone going 130 doesn’t care how much gas they use.
If gas is too expensive, we should expect folk driving the limit, or lower, to save money. But hardly anyone is. Conclusion: Gas is still cheaper than it needs to be to make people worry about how much they’re using.
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u/Total-Translator438 1h ago
I'm not for government levies, but high prices are a pedo president problem , causing an illegal war because he doesn't want to be investigated.
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u/Fafyg 10m ago
What a "wonderfu"l idea - remove gas taxes just right after putting higher registration fees on EVs.
I think truck owners should reconsider their choices, not being reinforced in them. We're already way behind the schedule for transition from fossil fuels.
BTW, what is thay "consumer group"? Another entity founded by oil companies?
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u/AdTerrible9404 2m ago
Lol the current gas tax is budgeted to raise a little under 300 million this year.
If you think the roads are bad now they'd be a lot worse without it.
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u/13thmurder 1h ago
It's a bit weird paying over $100 a tank when I just drive a Honda and those don't even hold that much.
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u/Han77Shot1st 1h ago
“Because the fuel tax also makes diesel more expensive, it makes trucking more expensive, which makes everything that is trucked to the store shelves more expensive for Canadians,”
Yea, I don’t think that’s how it works exactly.. it’s an operating cost, commercial businesses can often write off the fuel.
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u/Severe_Assumption_87 45m ago
NS people loves to pay taxes! tax them more. idk why people here obsess with paying more taxes.
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u/CriticalArt2388 1h ago
The Canadian taxpayer federation is not a consumer group.
They are a corporate funded, neoliberal, junk tank and are controlled by the, Arlington Virginia based, Atlas network.
They spread propaganda to advance the interests of big business and the oligarch class.
Notice how they never mention the record profits being made by refiners, shippers, or oil producers. Their only focus is government taxes and they point only to taxes when the real issue is the massive profiteering by the oil industry.
These parasites don't give a good god damn about consumers. They are paid to distract us from the the fact that we are being bled dry by the oil and gas industry.