With it now costing more than $100 to fill the gas tank of a small car, it is worth remembering a report on fossil fuel subsidies issued in February 2022 by International Institute for Sustainable Development.
While observers of BC politics have been writing about unconscionable oil and gas subsidies for years, the BC Press Gallery and members of the Legislature, excepting Green Party MLAs, have largely ignored the subject. To those people, it is quite acceptable for money borrowed by the public to be used for corporate welfare.
Provinces provide a large portion of Canada’s fossil fuel subsidies. By comparison, the federal government provided the fossil fuel industry across Canada with over C$1.9 billion in quantifiable subsidies in 2020, up to several billion in further tax subsidies, and 14 billion in public finance in 2020.
This report examines levels of fossil fuel subsidies in Canada’s main fossil fuel-producing provinces: British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan, and Newfoundland and Labrador. In total, these four provinces provided at least C$2.5 billion in fossil fuel subsidies in fiscal year (FY) 2020/21 and $1.5 billion in FY 2021/22…
Overall, these large numbers indicate that provinces are diverting significant public funds to incentivize fossil fuel production that may not otherwise occur, and provincial governments are missing out on millions in uncollected royalty and tax revenue from fossil fuels...
Lack of transparency means there is insufficient publicly available data on provincial fossil fuel subsidies. Often, subsidies are included in larger budget lines or funding programs, and disaggregated budgetary data is not provided. This means that the subsidy estimates we have calculated are conservative, and provincial subsidies to fossil fuel production and consumption are likely much higher...
A full C$3.2 billion in unused Deep Well royalty credits is outstanding, meaning that producers can reduce future royalty payments once these wells go into production (Office of the Comptroller General, 2021)…
International Institute for Sustainable Development, February 2022
Categories: oil and gas
IN-SIGHTS 
“the BC Press Gallery and members of the Legislature…….”
Just maybe they are getting a car allowance and maybe better yet it
is reviewed on some periodic interval and indexed to the average cost
of gas over that period.
I would not be surprised. Proportional representation may have provided
some impetus to address the fuel issue but it almost as feared as any
of the ‘ism’ words that come to mind.
I am surprised the Freedom flag waving crowd has not been protesting
on infringement rights to travel like before due to fuel costs.
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Our car ga$ hasn’t increased at all. Tank gets low, we put in another $60
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