Harvesters would like a purple pump
Terry Halifax
Northern News Services
Hay River (Nov 13/00) - Fishers, hunters, trappers and farmers are all faced with the highest fuel costs ever in the NWT and hope the government will cut back the territorial fuel tax.
 Hay River North MLA Paul Delorey says RWED minister Joe Handley has agreed to look at how subsidies could be paid. |
Kim Tybring, a past president and board member of the NWT Fisherman's Federation has approached the GNWT many times about the fuel tax.
"They say it would be to expensive administratively, based on the volume of gas we use," he said.
"And because we have road access to our tanks they fear we might put purple gas in our trucks."
"Checking it would mean they'd have to hire and enforcement guy and they don't come cheap either.
"All we're talking about is getting the taxes that we're paying on fuel rebated to us,"he said.
Tybring defines it as a road tax and finds it "hard to swallow that I have to pay road tax while I'm on my boat."
Evellyn Coleman, President of the Territorial Farmers Association said their group has also approached the GNWT with the purple gas issue.
She suggested that the tax could be recovered more easily through tax returns.
"It doesn't have to be purple gas, it could just be an off-road subsidy for gas that's open to hunters, trappers, fishers and farmers," Coleman said.
Margaret Melhorn, deputy minister for finance, said the tax on fuel is not specifically earmarked for roads and the money goes right into general revenue.
"One of the concerns that we have raised was that purple gas entails high administration and enforcement costs," Melhorn said.
Melhorn said that rather than have the purple gas or a tax rebate the easiest way to defer costs to producers would be through a straight subsidy based on fuel consumed.
"It would be much more cost effective to provide money through a direct grant, rather than try and do it through taxes," she said.
Hay River North MLA Paul Delorey said RWED minister Joe Handley has agreed to look at how subsidies could be paid.
"I did get a commitment from the minister that he would meet with the fishermen due to the hardships that they're going to be going through this winter, with the increase in fuel especially," Delorey said.
