By Ray Rivers
April 4th, 2026
BURLINGTON, ON
The war in Iran has created a petroleum energy crisis – prices soaring because there is a global shortage. So Tory leader Poilievre has called for the government to remove all federal gas taxes in Canada. But the federal gas tax, known the Canada Community-Building Fund (CCBF), provides permanent, long-term funding to Canadian municipalities for local infrastructure and public transit.
Mr Poilievre needs to focus his attention, if he really wants to help Canadians.
Cutting that tax would mean that municipalities would need to increase property taxes and/or increase the cost of public transit. That would just shift the tax burden from the motorist to the transit commuter and/or home owner. Robbing Peter to pay Paul is not a serious solution. It’s just cheap populism.
And if the federal government drops the GST on gasoline at the pump, as he also recommends, that would just increase the federal deficit which Poilievre keeps complaining is already too high. Besides, reducing the cost of gasoline would simply lead to greater demand – simple economics 101 – and the problem today is too little supply driving up the global price of the fossil fuel.
Those driving electric vehicles (EV) or even gas/electric hybrids are somewhat better off. Canadians lag Europeans and Asians when it comes to EV ownership and the Conservative Party’s anti-renewable and anti-EV policies are where Mr Poilievre needs to focus his attention, if he really wants to help Canadians. But Conservatives hate EV’s.
Alberta applies a $200 annual tax to your EV. Doug Ford is upset because Stellantis is planning to assemble their Chinese (LEAP) autos in their empty Jeep Brampton facility, as they will be also doing in Spain. Ford, who even removed charging stations from GO stations, is complaining that many of the components will have to be imported from China but his real objection is likely that the new vehicles will be electric.
Efficiency, speed, quiet and comfort of this alternative to air travel, the motor car and the traditional diesel locomotive.
Mr. Poilievre has also taken aim at the proposed Alto high speed rail to connect Toronto to Quebec. Japan has had an electrically powered ‘bullet train’ operating efficiently, safely and economically since 1964. France’s TGV operating since 1981 runs at speeds over 260 kms/hr. Canadian tourists to these places marvel at the efficiency, speed, quiet and comfort of this alternative to air travel, the motor car and the traditional diesel locomotive.
So after decades of chatter and no political action Canada’s ALTO high speed rail is planned to run at over 300 kms per hour, shortening commuting time between Ottawa and Toronto, for example, to less than two hours. That offers a real alternative for those tired of airport waiting lines. And if the train is electric, as it is planned to be, that conserves all kinds of petroleum.
Many people don’t appreciate just how big an undertaking the TMX is.
And it may be the electric propulsion forcing Mr Poilievre to oppose the high speed link… and promising to cancel Alto in the event he ever gets elected. An estimated preliminary price tag of $60 to $90 billion is a lot of money, but it’ll be built by Canadians with Canadian steel and homegrown technology. By comparison, the TMX oil pipeline cost $40 billion and it only transports bitumen.
Canada owes its very existence to the advent of rail travel. Former Tory PM Sir John A MacDonald brought Canada into existence thanks to his vision of a railway from coast to coast. It was, after all, a condition of B.C. joining the Dominion of Canada. But clearly this Tory leader lacks that kind of vision. He is no Sir John A.
Ray Rivers, a Gazette Contributing Editor, writes regularly applying his more than 25 years as a federal bureaucrat to his thinking. Rivers was once a candidate for provincial office in Burlington. He was the founder of the Burlington citizen committee on sustainability at a time when climate warming was a hotly debated subject. Ray has a post graduate degree in economics that he earned at the University of Ottawa. Tweet @rayzrivers
Background links:
Gas Tax – Rail Travel – Fuel Tax Holiday – High Speed Rail –
Discover more from Burlington Gazette - Local News, Politics, Community
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
Another hopeless hit piece on Poilievre. Rivers claims that Poilievre’s call to end Industrial Carbon Tax will effect the Canada Community-Building Fund (CCBF). What’s he saying, it’s not really a carbon tax? More lies from the liberals?
Rivers claims that Poilievre is only against high speed rail because the liberal government is proposing it, then likens it to John A MacDonald’s effort in building our national railroad and then adds the example of Japan’s high speed rail as proof that its a good idea for Canada.
The only thing that likens this current high speed rail to John A MacDonalds effort seems to be cronyism and political party funding (hopefully it won’t include the same level of financial corruption). It certainly won’t advance the nations interest at all, as John A’s did, but it certainly helps the liberal party cronies and donors that will build the project.
Japan’s high speed rail proves the opposite point that Rivers is trying to make since Japan at 377,000 km sq is less than have the size of Ontario and has a population 2.5 times Canada’s total population where 1 million customers per day ride the train that serves the WHOLE country….and not just 3 or 4 cities with a combined population of less than 10 million.
Conservatives don’t hate EVs, we hate governments that subsidize our relatively wealthy to buy EVs often from the world’s richest man (who certainly doesn’t need subsidy) who makes most of his cars dirt cheap in China where they pollute our world, out-of-sight-out-of-mind with coal fired energy….and where they have no carbon taxes. China still gets 60 % of their electricity from COAL…..and our PM who is also Ambassador to the UN for Climate Change doesn’t call them out…..instead impoverishing Canadian’s with carbon taxes to fight climate change and kill our resource industry while supporting China to pollute our world. Could that be because of Brookfield business interests in China? And now Carney’s even going to threaten our auto industry by allowing Chinese EVs into Canada. EVs that are made impossibly cheaply in China that has NONE of our social democratic costs like labour regulations, human rights regulations, environmental regulations, carbon taxes, minimum wages, unions, welfare, EI…etc…..as though this is free and equal trade!!
Also, all the countries that are leading in the purchase and use of EVs are a TINY fraction of Canada’s 9 million sq kms, with most of them having less than 500,000 km sq making infrastructure costs far less onerous. Our auto makers are making hybrids that are more appropriate for our size and conditions and provide excellent jobs for our citizens.
Lastly, and perhaps the dumbest, Rivers compares the virtues of high speed rail over pipelines noting that high speed rail will be built with Canadian steel and pipelines only carry crude. Seriously, crude from which there is insatiable global demand versus rail that will take maybe a million passengers a year between 4 Canadian cities!
And pipelines, like John A MacDonalds train will do something not just for the country but for the west, which liberals have been evading for decades.
Good column, Ray.
A Tale of Two Projects. Once upon a time a king had two projects to consider, let’s call the projects Project West and Project East.
Project West would bring product to many countries around the world that desire such product, it would significantly strengthen the King’s negotiating leverage against the Evil Trump and strengthen the currency used in his kingdom, strengthening the purchasing power of the peasants. The route for the project is well established, private companies within the Kingdom that have much experience in such projects would build the project with investor’s money with no risk to the tax payers in the kingdom. Steel companies in the kingdom make the material for this project and First Nation Communities along the way would reap great benefits. The project would generate $71 million dollars a day in revenue and bring in $13 Billion dollars of annual tax revenue.
Project West could be started very quickly if the King just got out of the way and allowed the bounty to be shipped abroad to eagerly awaiting customers.
The project would operate quietly, wildlife would be free to migrate across the corridor.
The King however fancied Project East – he in fact put it deep in his budget hoping some would not notice. He would have the peasants pay for this project, estimated at $90 Billion Dollars which often increases significantly based on experience in other kingdoms.
No one in the world really cares about this project, except the King and his friends, only because other Kings had such projects – perhaps vanity?
The project would not make any money for the Kingdom, in fact the peasants would need to pay $2 billion dollars a year to subsidize this project.
One of the King’s good friends would design and oversee the project, we know they are good friends because the King’s predecessor tried to get them off a serious crime of bribing Kadafi, the dictator in Libya.
The extensive amount of steel used for this project is not produced by any steel company in the Kingdom, however if the steel companies are given enough subsidies they would consider making this product.
The project when operational in many, many years would be very noisy and divide the land in two making it very difficult for wildlife. The noise is very loud, 91 dBA at 25 meters away, hence a wide corridor is needed for this project. This is quite loud, like that of a pop or rock concert at high volume.
The King will need to expropriate land from the peasants, and those left behind will have the value of the land reduced significantly.
The project would be very nice for the friends of the King, the peasants and other elites however have many other less expensive options and would not need to use the project.
Many of the Kings friends are involved in the project, some local, some international, one that had executives convicted, and even an airline is involved, this seems very strange?
There is no route yet, so these companies will do very well as the project scope changes, many lawyers, accountants, lobbyist and many meetings around the world for the King to enjoy fine dining and fine wine with friends.
Rob Peter to pay Paul? Newsflash there is only one taxpayer. “Reduce spending Ray”. Your tirade is amusing.
I have a suggestion for your next negative hit piece, why not outline what Carney has not accomplished?
Start with this tired government making virtually zero progress on sectoral tariffs and stabilizing the relationship with our partner to the south or even showing willingness to add?
Then add his completely incoherent foreign policy other than worthless MOU’s with his Brookfield contacts. Here I thought Trudeau was a generational failure on this subject.
Finish with zero progress on any major projects of national interest. If there was ever a “national emergency ” surely it would be to immediately start building pipelines to the East and West and not delivering more cheap oil to the US via a partial completion of Keystone. Trump apparently owns Carney.