At the request of Roberts Creek director Mark Lebbell, the Sunshine Coast Regional District (SCRD) will discuss taxing people at the pump to help subsidize local transit plans.
Lebbell put the idea forward at a Nov. 5 infrastructure services committee meeting after hearing from staff that there wouldn’t be any money from the province for transit expansion this year.
“Board members are well aware of my views on the economic, environmental and social benefits of a robust transit system,” Lebbell said at the meeting.
“Governments around the country are looking at creative ways to fund transit through recent plebiscites, and I just heard yesterday that the province of Ontario is selling off hydro assets to pay for transit infrastructure. So other governments are well aware of the benefits.”
He pointed to an SCRD board resolution from 2007 to the Union of B.C. Municipalities that asked the province to allow regions to impose a motor fuel tax to fund transit plans, as well as a staff report that was compiled on the issue for a corporate and administrative services meeting in March 2014.
The report suggested a sales tax on motor fuel was “one particular revenue generating option” the SCRD could pursue, noting the Greater Vancouver Regional District and the Capital Regional District have successfully implemented such a tax.
The report also stipulated that before any motor fuel sales tax could be levied by local government, the province would have to amend the B.C. Motor Fuel Tax Act.
“What I’m going to suggest going forward on here is something that the regional district’s been involved in since 2007 and that was to allow for a motor fuel tax, a local one as per Vancouver and Victoria,” Lebbell said at the Nov. 5 meeting.
He then moved that the staff report from 2014 on the local fuel tax, as well as any correspondence that came from the province as a result of it, be forwarded to the next infrastructure services meeting on Dec. 3 for more discussion.
All were in favour of the request.
