LORNE GUNTER: TIME FOR THE UCP TO CUT ALBERTA'S GAS TAX ALREADY

Over the weekend, the UCP government once again defended the huge flop that is their energy rebate, the $100 cheques and e-transfers they claim to be giving to every provincial resident in place of lower prices on gasoline and diesel at the pumps.

A spokesperson for provincial Finance Minister Jason Nixon told Postmedia in an email on Friday, “Alberta’s government said we’d put more money back in Albertans’ pockets, and that’s exactly what the Alberta Energy Rebate is doing. That’s real money, back in people’s pockets, fast.”

No it’s not. Consider the math.

According to the government, there are 3.4 million Albertans eligible for the $100 rebate. There likely should be more. There are 3.7 million licensed drivers.

Some don’t drive very often or fill up all that many times a summer. Still, how to explain the difference between the 3.4 million Albertans eligible to receive the government’s rebate and the 3.7 million who are licensed to drive?

Some or all of the gap could be the Smith government’s NDP-like decision to make couples earning over $225,000 a year ineligible for the benefit. Why, didn’t they pay the same high gasoline prices are everyone else through all spring when the world price of oil was over $90US a barrel?

How does a free-market government make such a socialist decision? Thank Premier Danielle Nenshi.

Still, how can the government claim to be helping “everyone,” not just drivers, when only 35 per cent of eligible Albertans have applied and qualified for their tiddly, little benefit?

And the actual number of applicants is probably closer to just 1 million (less than 30 per cent) when you consider that provincial bureaucrats sent rebates automatically to just about 200,000 recipients of the Alberta Seniors Benefit. No complicated, privacy-prying process for them.

I keep hearing rumours from inside the government that administering this needlessly complicated, bureaucratic program is costing nearly $2 million. That’s close to two dollars per successful applicant.

It’s outrageous.

All of this could have been avoided – and real money put back into ordinary Albertans’ pockets – if the Smith government had just done what it was supposed to do in the first place; that is lower the pump price for gasoline and diesel by 13.5 cents a litre from July 1 to Sept 30.

Poof! Done. Then whenever any Alberta driver pulled up to a pump and put the nozzle into his or her fuel tank – presto! – money in their pockets. And the process wouldn’t require anyone to enter their social insurance number, the 17 digits off the back of their driver’s license, their spouse’s income or their marks from Grade 10 and the name of their first sweetheart.

I raise this – again – because there’s a very good chance that as of Oct. 1 we are all going to eligible for another pump price reduction.

For over three months this past spring, the price of West Texas Intermediate crude was over $90US/barrel. According to provincial regulation, that qualified us all for 13.5 cents a litre off. Most of this summer the price has been $80US to $84.99. If that holds through most of September, we’re supposed to get 4.5 cents a litre of the pump price.

I’m breathless to see what the province gives us in place of a cut in pump prices. A free guided hike to Troll Falls in Kananaskis Country? Tokens for vending machines at provincial roadside rest areas?

When the province first considered whether to give pump-price relief or a complicated, unsatisfying rebate, the provincial budget deficit was projected to be $9.4 billion and they worried a price reduction would rob the treasury of too much money. But now they are projections of a $3.8-billion surplus this year.

Pass a bit of that windfall on to beleaguered drivers, please.

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2026-08-18T15:10:25Z