OrilliaMatters received the following letter from Ellen Cohen regarding Doug Ford's plan to force gas stations to post stickers on the pumps explaining federal taxes.
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The PC government is spending my money on stickers and misleading advertising.
The stickers are located at gas stations. The purpose of the stickers is to tell us that the federal government is responsible for raising prices by 4.5 cents. I’m guessing that means we should be outraged.
What the stickers don’t tell us is that one year ago the average price of gasoline in Ontario was $1.28.254. The average price today is $1.23.858.
The stickers also don’t tell us how much of the gas price is for a variety of taxes, there is no mention of the oil companies who raise prices seasonally, or based on that day/week’s price/barrel of oil.
What the Ontario government wants us to believe is that the price of gasoline has increased strictly because of the bad federal government and their terrible carbon tax program, even though as far as I know, they have no policy or no better policy.
I do understand the financial hardships of people who must travel long distances for work, or those who run business involving vehicles for delivery, but to suggest that 4.5 cents is the reason, the only reason, gas prices are up is disingenuous at best.
To add to this insult to our intelligence, the Ontario government now has an advertising campaign that will tell us poor simple folk that a carbon tax is bad without mentioning one word about the federal tax credit available - starting with our 2018 tax filing.
Not only are all taxpayers footing the bill for this advertising, it is misleading. There is a law against misleading advertising – unless the government has quietly rid itself of that pesky little bit of legislation.
We pay taxes to pay for services, including the salaries of our elected officials.
Had Premier Ford told us we’d also pay for highly partisan stickers and ads that purposefully mislead, perhaps some voters would have thought twice about asking him to lead our province.
Ellen Cohen
Orillia
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