A case for increasing provincial fuel taxes (on a temporary basis) /

Diesel fuel tax revenue per capita in Ontario is expected to have only a modest decline over the same period, falling from the mid-$60 range in the early 2000s to the low-$60 range in the early 2030s. [...] Furthermore, these tax increases could be viewed as a form of a carbon tax (one that is, by the way, growing in popularity in a number of countries) and as such, it would be similar to the 6.67 cents per litre carbon tax on motor fuel and 7.67 cents per litre carbon tax on diesel fuel in British Columbia. [...] It shows actual and estimated revenue per capita from the provincial gasoline tax of 14.7 cents per litre from 2000 to 2022 (lower line on the graph), and per capita revenue that could have been generated if the gasoline tax had increased each year from 1992 by the rate of inflation (upper line) as measured by the Consumer Price Index.8 The potential additional tax revenue in Ontario from indexing [...] Figure 4: Estimated Provincial Gasoline Tax Revenue (in millions of $) at the Current Fuel Tax Rate and at an Indexed Rate, 2015 to 2022 Estimated provincial gasoline fuel tax revenue with an increase 3,800 in the tax to 23¢ per litre in 2015 and future increases Note: The lower line 3,600 is based on the 3,400 based on inflation of 2.5% annually data in column 2 3,200 of Appendix Table 3,000 1; t [...] Figure 6: Estimated Provincial Diesel Fuel Tax Revenue (in millions of $) at the Current Tax Rate and at an Indexed Rate, 2015 to 2022 1,650 Estimated provincial diesel tax revenue with an increase in the tax to 22¢ per litre in 2015 and future increases based on inflation of 2.5% per year 1,450 1,250 1,050 850 Provincial diesel tax revenue without indexation 650 Year Note: The lower line is based