Government of Ontario extends gas tax cut to next summer

Ontario Premier Doug Ford says the province will be extending a 5.7-cent cut to the gas tax until next summer.

Ford was joined by Minister of Finance Peter Bethlenfalvy to make the announcement at a press conference in Etobicoke Tuesday morning.

The government first launched the cut back in July 2022 and has extended it several times since. The reduction to gas and a 5.3-cent cut to the price of diesel fuel will now remain in effect until June 30, 2024.

Ford first promised to lower gas prices by 10 cents per litre during his election campaign in 2018.

At the time, the Progressive Conservative Party said it would do so by scrapping the province’s cap-and-trade system and shrinking the gas tax.

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The government would end cap-and-trade shortly after the 2018 election in a move that intended to lower the prices by 4.3 cents a litre.

However, that would prompt the federal carbon tax backstop to kick in and negate those savings.

The carbon tax, introduced by the Trudeau government in 2018, was implemented as a part of the federal climate change strategy. The Prime Minister said at the time the tax would ensure it was no longer free to pollute in Canada.

The Ford government attempted to fight the levy in court, but ultimately lost.

The province argued that the federal carbon tax overstepped provincial authority, but the chief justice with the Ontario court said climate change is a matter of national concern.

This report was created with files from The Canadian Press

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