Our Conservative Government has just completed the renewal of the agreements with the Provinces and Territories regarding the federal Gas Tax Fund and the final payments for the 2014 year are flowing to each province and territory. As your Member of Parliament, I can underline for you the importance of this money to every community throughout our large and mainly rural riding. Local officials rely on this funding for many community projects both large and small. In 2014, our Crowfoot riding received more than $10.4 million.
The Gas Tax Fund is important to me because it was the Conservative Party as the Official Opposition who called on the Liberal government of the day to return the revenue to the jurisdictions where it was raised. We maintained that it was not fair for communities that paid a larger amount of these taxes (e.g. remote and rural communities that use a great deal of gasoline for transportation and working the farm) to have this money spent in neighbouring larger metropolitan and urban locations. We understood the importance of these revenues to even the smallest communities.
Shortly after forming government in 2006, we made significant improvements to the Gas Tax Fund. It has been extended, doubled, indexed and made permanent. This has made a remarkable difference to the municipalities all across our riding. The Federation of Canadian Municipalities continues to laud our efforts. We made the Gas Tax funding more predictable, we provide the funds earlier in the calendar year, and we increased the amount of funding returned to the region where it was raised. That was our campaign promise and we delivered.
Along with the new agreements with the provinces and Territories, we can continue to support local public infrastructure. At close to $22 billion, the renewed federal Gas Tax Fund is the largest component of the New Building Canada Plan and the largest long-term federal commitment to investing in Canada’s public infrastructure in our nation’s history.
The Gas Tax Fund flows directly to municipalities to support local infrastructure priorities, including: safer roads, improving access to clean drinking water, supporting community energy systems, mitigating disaster, and helping with the management of wastewater or solid waste.
The federal Gas Tax Fund is more flexible than ever before and is making a difference in our communities. It provides predictable, stable and long-term investments into our hometowns. For more information about the federal Gas Tax Fund visit: http://www.infrastructure.gc.ca/plan/gtf-fte-eng.html
