If I were a traveler from near or far and I knew that I had to pay an extra tax if I bought gas or diesel fuel in Prince George, I might just plan my trip so I wouldn't have to fuel up in Prince George. No one traveling to the coast fuels up in Vancouver, they fuel up outside the transit tax boundaries.
Our city council is of the opinion that if they enact the fuel tax they will be able to lower business taxes and so it might be, but usually when travellers fuel up they will want to eat or maybe do a little shopping at the same time.
In the case of truckers who now buy thousands of litres of fuel and food locally when they are travelling through, why would they want to pay extra to do so? Gasoline and diesel fuel are readily available in any direction from Prince George. What is the city doing in the real estate business? The money to buy their real estate holdings probably came from our taxes, earmarked for road rehabilitation and the running of our city in the first place.
It appears to me that our property taxes are going up, our utility taxes have increased and now they are trying to put another tax on our gasoline all in the name of road rehabilitation. What are they going to pave our road with -- gold?
Mel McConaghy
Prince George
