Bob Dolyniuk, Executive Director of the Manitoba Trucking Association, wrote:
While Manitoba wants to be a Canadian leader in biofuels it is creating a cross-subsidy in the process.
While the Minister stated that this shift will be more effective in making producers competitive and encourage the local production of biofuels, the reality is that with Manitoba’s biodiesel mandate the major fuel companies will be importing biodiesel into Manitoba to satisfy the mandated average blend.
This shift will create a cross subsidy. Road users will be subsidizing biodiesel producers with the taxes they pay when they burn biodiesel.
It is truly unfortunate that the Manitoba Government has chosen to take tax dollars generated by road users and will use those dollars to subsidize another industry. If Manitoba truly wants to subsidize an industry it should subsidize it from general revenues. Tax dollars generated by road users should be re-invested in our highway and road infrastructure and not other areas.
This shift will redirect $14 million dollars to biodiesel producers when those dollars should be invested into our highway and road infrastructure.
This reply originally appeared in relation to a post entitled “Amendments to Biofuels Act Would Provide Production Grant for Biodiesel Producers: Chomiak”. Click here to access that post.
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