Re: transit gas tax. Gas taxes in Canada collect over $22 billion a year, and if they were properly dispersed B.C.’s share would be $3 billion annually.
If used to improve roads and help transit there would be no need to increase any taxes, but this money is used for everything else. If the McKenzie overpass was built 10 or 15 years ago when first needed, traffic jams on the Island Highway would be a non-starter. I don’t understand why taxpayers have to pick up so much of the bus riders’ fare.
Saanich Coun. Susan Brice, who chairs the Victoria Regional Transit Commission, has stated that bus riders only pay 25 per cent of the actual cost and taxpayers cover the rest. If a two-cent-a-litre tax would raise another $6 million, then 50 cents more a ride would raise $13 million, based on 2016 ridership in Victoria.
Now all these riders could get all the routes and rides they want and have the satisfaction that they helped contribute to a really great transit system and not just a very good system.
Dennis Bourne
Saanich