Coke Toll Revenue Could Be Helping BC Right Now

(Aired on May 25, 2010)

Driving home from the coast yesterday, I couldn't help but reflect on the vast increase in traffic on the Coquihalla Highway. I've driven the highway extensively the past three years, at all times of day, in all seasons of the year. The volume of traffic is up substantially. Heavy truck traffic has really climbed. In fact yesterday, it was as busy between Kamloops and Hope as it was between Hope and Vancouver.

While I was driving, I wondered how many lives we could have saved in B.C. hospitals, or how many kids we could have given a proper education to, if we had not removed the tolls on the Coquihalla Highway a couple of years back. In retrospect, it was one of the stupidest moves ever by a government bent on trying to get votes for re-election. The money lost from the tolls on the highway, millions and millions every year, was lost because the government decided votes were more important than using the money for the good of the province. What if we had taken that money and used it to provide services in our hospitals, or kept more teachers on the job. Wouldn't that have been a great thing?

I know it's just another form of taxation, but it's no different than the tax on booze or cigarettes or gas, or any of the other hidden taxes we have to pay. But I would certainly rather pay the toll and have health services than not. The other side of the coin, of course, is that many of these taxes simply go into general revenue, and I'm not in favour of that. I prefer taxes go to specific items, like that transit tax on the Lower Mainland.

The government has put itself into such a hole economically, and much of it they've dug themselves with poor planning, and politically expedient moves like the removal of the toll on the Coke. They really could do a lot better.