Gasoline tax cuts not coming until fall, Ford goverment says
(The Star Toronto Raptors)

Ontario motorists won’t see the first chunk of Premier Doug Ford’s promised 10 cent a litre cut in gasoline taxes until the fall, Government House Leader Todd Smith says. The price break at the pumps will have to wait until the new Progressive Conservative government’s proposed bill scrapping former premier Kathleen Wynne’s cap-and-trade program is passed.Read more:Tories scrap cap-and-trade plan in order to reduce gas prices“We’re very, very committed to getting the cap-and-trade act voted on in the Legislature in the fall and that will begin the process of reducing the price of gasoline immediately by 4.3 cents a litre,� Smith told a news conference recapping the government’s achievements since taking power June 30. “Stay tuned.�The other 5.7 cents of the tax relief, which Ford promised during the June 7 election campaign as a reduction in the excise tax, will come later — likely following a provincial budget. The gas tax pledge would mean $1.2 billion in lost revenue for the provincial treasury under Ford, who has vowed to cut $6 billion in government spending and trim income taxes by $2.3 billion.Critics, including Green Party Leader Mike Schreiner, have taken Ford’s government to task for axing the cap-and-trade plan — which sets caps on greenhouse gas emissions and allowed companies in certain industries below the limits to sell their unused limits — without having a replacement plan to fight climate change.Smith said Environment Minister Rod Phillips is working on one but could not say when it will be ready.