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Chris Sims

The Trudeau government plans to hit Canadians with a major new tax on their trucks and sport utility vehicles.

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The proposed tax would cost $1,000 more on a Ford F-150, and a rugged Ram 3500 pickup truck would be hit with a $4,000 tax.

For most people, this new tax will come as a surprise, as neither Prime Minister Justin Trudeau nor Environment Minister Steven Guilbeault held a major press conference to announce their latest war on workers. The recommendation to hit trucks with a big tax is buried deep in a new 271-page report from the Department of the Environment that was posted on the Government of Canada website on March 31, 2022.

“This is our ambitious and achievable roadmap to achieve our emissions reduction targets,” Guilbeault writes at the start of the report.

The report recommends expanding an existing tax that currently hits large SUVs to also apply to trucks such as Ford F-150s, Toyota Tacomas, Chevrolet Silverado 1500s and Dodge Rams.

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The tax bill would range from $1,000 for light-duty pickup trucks to $4,000 for super heavy-duty trucks that tow horse trailers and construction equipment.

These pickup trucks are also the most popular vehicles in Canada.

The current tax hits new SUVs that consume more than 13 liters of fuel per 100 kilometres. For example, the GMC Yukon Denali and the Lincoln Navigator are currently subject to the tax. Ottawa hits the Nissan Armada with a $3,000 tax bill.

For many Canadians, trucks are as important to their work and daily lives as a laptop and a Zoom account are to those of us in offices.

You can’t pack a Prius full of poultry feed, and it’s hard to cram plywood into a Tesla.

For people reading this in an urban core where such mechanical workhorses are rare: these trucks pick up and haul the gypsum a gypsum needs to renovate your basement and the alfalfa that dairy cows eat to make your next ice cream cone.

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As with all governments, these types of taxes always start with a small number of people to tax, then gradually expand each year until everyone pays more.

Your small SUV could be next in the falls. Think of the Honda CR-V or Toyota RAV4 that gets you to the grocery store even when the streets haven’t been plowed in winter.

If they go ahead with this change, what’s stopping the Trudeau government from targeting smaller Chevy Blazers and Ford Explorers next time around? A stroke of a pen could impose the tax on dozens of other vehicles.

And how long will it take Ottawa to raise taxes on the sale of used SUVs and trucks while they’re there? Federal and provincial governments are already hitting the poorest with sales taxes when they buy used vehicles, no matter how many times the car has been bought and sold.

As many grapple with record gas pump prices and skyrocketing grocery prices, the Trudeau government is even opposing temporary provincial gas tax cuts in Ontario and Alberta. .

We don’t know exactly when Trudeau’s new truck tax will be implemented, but based on his minister’s pedal-to-the-metal approach, it could be here tomorrow.

Buckle up, guys.

— Kris Sims is the BC Director of the Canadian Taxpayers Federation