Manitoba extends gas tax holiday

Manitoba motorists will continue to benefit from lower fuel prices for at least three more months.

Premier Wab Kinew announced through a press release on Wednesday that the gas tax holiday will be extended until December 31st. It was set to expire on September 30th.

The gas tax holiday, which has been in place since early January, removes the 14-cent Provincial Sales Tax.

"Since we cut the gas tax in January, inflation has gone down in Manitoba," says Kinew. "This is what governments are for. We know Manitobans are still struggling with the impact of interest rates and grocery prices so we're going to continue to step up and save you 14 cents at the pump."

The Premier says people who drive the most popular type of vehicle in the province, a pickup truck, will save around $14 every time they fuel up. The Manitoba Bureau of Statistics estimates the gas tax holiday has directly contributed to a decrease of 0.4 percentage points to inflation.

According to our province, since the introduction of the gas tax holiday, Manitoba has had the lowest average retail price of gasoline in Canada and inflation has dropped to within the Bank of Canada's target inflation range of one to three per cent.

According to gasbuddy.com, the average price of gasoline in Manitoba on Wednesday is 129.4 cents per litre. That is the lowest average in Canada, with Alberta being the next cheapest at 143.4 cents per litre. 

At 132.9 cents per litre, Steinbach is the city with the 5th cheapest average gas price in all of Canada.