By Cheryl Jahn

City gets last gas tax cheque. For now.

Jan 10, 2024 | 12:02 PM

PRINCE GEORGE – Every year for the past ten years, municipalities across the nation have received what has commonly become known as the “gas tax.” And while it’s called the gas tax, that’s a bit of a misnomer.

“Almost a decade ago, they decoupled it from the gas collected at the pump to the infrastructure built at a municipality,” explains City Councillor Garth Frizell.

Now, that funding allocation is based on population. For the City of Prince George that is three million dollars per year. Initially, when it was created, the money was earmarked for very specific things, such as road rehabilitation but evolved over the years to fund some civic facility projects.

But the ten-year duration of the latest gas tax funding is winding down and the City has just received the last 1.7 million dollars of its funding but City Councillor Garth Frizzell says the transfer has been supported by all different political stripes and to pull that funding now would be disastrous.

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“It does expire and we need to put that funding in again,” says Frizzell. “But this is something that’s been in former Liberal governments and Conservative governments. It’s a regular part of the Canadian budgetary process. If it was pulled now, municipalities would have to scramble. Imagine an additional sudden three or four percent increase in addition to everything else?” Over the ten years of the program, $1.25 billion has been disbursed among local governments in BC.

by Cheryl Jahn

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City gets last gas tax cheque. For now.

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