“A direct attack on rural British Columbians” Province’s Tax on Propane Tanks Draws Condemnation

A new policy initiative to tax propane tanks 80 gallons and up has drawn has the ire of a Williams Lake City Councillor.

Owner of Best Buy Propane, Scott Nelson calls the provincial plan which will take effect on February 1st and have a tax of $38.00  or more per year on each tank, a pure and simple tax grab on rural British Columbians.

“I talked to a number of resort owners this morning and they’re simply flabbergasted, they can’t believe the government would be doing this because you got to remember a resort has their main lodge then they’ve got 10-15 for cabins so this is going to cost them $700-$800 more per year.”

Nelson says he only became aware of the policy in an email late last week.

He says he has received no reasonable explanation.

“The propane industry’s been very proactive-safety is our number one issue. We’ve been sending in these registration forms into the government for the last 10 years, we’ve got documentation. This is what big government does-they lose things and want to create multi-million dollar tax programs to pull in additional revenue.”

Nelson says he’ll be making a resolution at the next City of Williams Lake regular Council meeting, asking the government to withdraw the tax against rural British Columbia.

“I think the government quietly tried to sneak this in,” says Nelson. “This doesn’t have an impact on downtown Vancouver, downtown Surrey, or downtown Richmond, this has a massive impact on rural British Columbia where really all of the propane tanks are.”

Minster of Natural Gas Development, Rich Coleman, as well Cariboo-Chilcotin MLA Donna Barnett are currently unavailable for comment.