Éric Duhaime demands lower gasoline taxes

(Quebec) Éric Duhaime’s Conservative Party (PCQ) is calling for a reduction in Quebec government taxes on fuel.

At a press conference Wednesday in Sainte-Anne-de-la-Pérade, Mr. Duhaime said that the Legault government had to stop dipping into the pockets of motorists.

“We have never paid so much for gasoline,” lamented Mr. Duhaime, speaking of the current “phenomenal increase” caused by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

He therefore asks the CAQ government to imitate the Alberta government of Jason Kenney, which has temporarily suspended the provincial gasoline tax since Monday.

The PCQ therefore wants Quebec consumers to no longer have to pay QST on a liter of gasoline. That would correspond to a drop of about 20 cents per litre, he said.

Each increase in the price of a barrel brings an increase in QST revenue from sales at the gas pump.

“It would be a little indecent for the government to increase its revenues and take advantage of this increase (in the price of fuel),” said the leader of the PCQ.

Remember that another tax from the Quebec government, the fuel tax, at more than 19 cents per litre, also applies to petroleum products.

A temporary solution

Mr. Duhaime believes that his claim can only be a temporary solution, however. In the long term, he advocates the exploitation of Quebec’s gas and oil resources.

He therefore denounced the bill currently being studied in Parliament, which aims to ban the exploration and exploitation of hydrocarbons.

According to him, Prime Minister François Legault made a mistake by renouncing the exploitation of the oil potential here, when he was a supporter of it in the past.

“He made a 180 degree turn to please Montreal environmentalists, he will have to please motorists and people from the rest of Quebec, he will have to come back with both feet on the ground. »

According to Mr. Duhaime, Quebec could be self-sufficient with its oil and gas reserves alone.

“We are dependent on the outside and in some cases, on dictatorships,” he condemned. However, according to data from the Department of Energy and Natural Resources, 63% of the oil consumed in Quebec comes from the United States and 37% from Western Canada.

The CAA reported on Tuesday an average price of $1.96 per liter in Montreal, $1.83 in the Capitale-Nationale region, $1.929 in Laval. In the Gaspé region, gas stations were showing $1.98 per liter of regular gasoline.

Gas to Europe

Mr. Duhaime also pleaded for the revival of the LNG Quebec natural gas export project, in particular to supply Europe with natural gas and reduce its dependence on Russian gas.

Quebec and Ottawa refused this LNG port project in Saguenay, which was to receive natural gas from the West by pipeline and liquefy it before loading it onto ships for export.

“We hear the Europeans demanding that we send them liquefied natural gas, exactly like what we could have done in Saguenay,” pleaded the leader of the PCQ.

He maintained that the project enjoyed immense popular support in Saguenay.

In a voluminous report published a year ago, the Bureau d’audiences publiques sur l’environnement (BAPE) concluded that the company had failed to demonstrate that public opinion was favorable.

The BAPE felt that the debate was highly polarized and that its hearings had not made it possible to come to a conclusion on the social acceptability of the project.