British Columbians are going to see some costs go up on April 1 — and no, it’s not an April Fool’s Day joke.
Provincial and federal carbon taxes are going up, increasing the cost of gas and other energy sources. It will rise from $50 per tonne of emissions to $65 per tonne.
This will equate to about three cents a litre more for gas.
The federal carbon tax means natural gas will increase to 12 cents per cubic metre and diesel will jump to 17 cents per litre.
“Say the mid part of April, we could be looking at a scenario where gasoline gets a lot closer to the $1.95, maybe $2 range,” Dan McTeague with Canadians for Affordable Energy said.
April 1 will also see the government adjust its inflation-based federal excise, which applies to beer, wine, spirits and cannabis by two per cent.
“The hospitality industry barely limped through the pandemic and we have not recovered financially from it,” Jeff Guignard, executive director of the B.C. Alliance of Beverage Licensees said.
“You still have about 40 per cent of pubs, bars and restaurants out there that are breaking even or losing money.”
Food distribution professor at Dalhousie University, Sylvain Charlebois, told Global News that the tax, which was introduced in 2017, was designed to automatically increase over time based on the rate of inflation to avoid renegotiating it too often.
Last year, the tax went up 2.4 per cent.
The Vancouver Park Board is also set to increase parking fees.
It will now cost a dollar more an hour during the summer months in Stanley Park.
At lots managed by the Park Board, parking fees will rise anywhere from six to 10 per cent.
Some bright news for many, however, minimum wage increases on April 1 by over a dollar to $16.65 an hour.