NOMA doesn’t support eliminating the gas tax

Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre’s idea of elimating the federal gas tax is not getting support from the Northwestern Ontario Municipal Association.

Rick Dumas is president of NOMA and says the idea may offer short term relief but risks long term consequences for municipalities and Canada.

 “Highways 11 and 17 are not just Northern roads—they are a national trade corridor,” says Dumas.

We need to be investing in them as a nation-building priority, not pulling back from the very tools that help us get there.”

The organization says municipalities use federal gas tax revenue to maintain roads, bridges, water systems and transit networks.

It adds that the impacts of eliminating the gas tax would be most acutely felt in northern, rural and remote communities, where distances are vast, and costs are higher.

It says at a time when municipalities are already managing significant instructure deficits, removing the funding would only deepen that strain.

The organization says eliminating the federal gas tax would also undermine any progress made on national infrastructure projects.