South Shore- St. Margaret's MP Rick Perkins speaking in the House of Commons. Photo: Government of Canada.
The rise in fuel prices is having disastrous effects on fishermen according to Fisheries critic and South Shore- St. Margaret’s MP Rick Perkins.
During Question Period this week, Perkins said that fishermen in his area who primarily use diesel as their fuel have seen prices increase by 140 per cent since the fall fishing seasons.
“Fishermen are now only going out every other day, in Nova Scotia 70 cents of diesel prices goes to governments, it’s time to lower government fuel taxes,” Perkins said.
Although some provinces like Alberta and Ontario have already taken steps to lower the taxes they impose on fuel there has been no indication that the Nova Scotian or federal governments intend to follow suit.
Alberta’s Premier Jason Kenney announced the province would temporarily stop collecting its portion of fuel taxes beginning April 1.
Ontario Premier Doug Ford also announced legislation this week, that if approved would remove the Ontario provincial fuel tax for a period of six months starting on July 1.
In Nova Scotia, the provincial fuel tax is 15.5 cents per litre, in addition to HST which also goes to the provincial government.
