For
immediate release:
April 10, 2008
Tire tax presented under guise of environmentalism
Barrett asks for: “A Little More Carrot and a Little Less Stick”
Queen’s Park – Much like the so-called health tax, the McGuinty Government refuses to define its new $60 million tire tax as a tax.
Ontario PC Conservative MPP Ted Chudleigh presented a resolution today in the Ontario Legislature asking that the Liberal government cancel its plans to implement the tax on purchasing new tires – a tax that will impact all Ontarians as they would pay a $4 levy on each new tire purchased.
Haldimand-Norfolk MPP and Environment Critic Toby Barrett weighed in on the issue. “It is unacceptable that we’re the only province in Canada that does not have a tire recycling program. That being said, I don’t feel it’s necessary for people in Ontario to be hit with yet another tax,” Barrett said. “I really feel there’s nothing worse than implementing a tax like this one under the guise of environmentalism.”
Barrett said he is in favour of a recycling plan, but he is not certain that the Liberal government is as committed.
“We have a trial balloon before us being pushed out the door,” Barrett said. “I feel that taxpayers could accept this tire tax if this government had acted in good faith to start. To deliver very recently a no-new-taxes budget, and then a few days later to come up with something like this, we’re just left with the image of nothing more than a tax grab.”
The local MPP said that this proposal is very comparable to the health tax implemented in 2004 – a tax that the government conveniently labels a premium.
Barrett also pointed to the fact that Liberal Premier David Peterson tried such a program in 1989 that was very flawed.
“Essentially, it was dishonest to the point that Bob Rae rescinded it in 1993,” Barrett said. “Imagine. It was such a bad tax that even the NDP under Bob Rae was forced to become a tax fighter on that particular levy.”
There are alternatives that could accomplish the same thing as a tax, Barrett told his colleagues. In fact, the Ontario Tire Collectors Association proposed a plan in 2005, when Premier McGuinty eagerly dismissed the idea of a tire recycling plan.
“I believe in a tire recycling program,” Barrett said. “I’m not convinced that this government is. If you want to implement a program, take a look at the alternatives that have been presented before us, because people in this province really can’t afford more to end up getting less.
“We do learn from history. History has shown us that taxing consumers is not really the way to go. Let’s have a little more carrot on this one and a little less stick.”
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