The Canada Community Building Fund

💡 This article is part of a series about funding of roads in British Columbia.

The federal "Gas Tax Fund" was a system created by the federal Government. It has since changed it's name to the Canada Community Building Fund.

The previous naming of the "Gas Tax Fund" implied the money was earmarked from the gas tax into the fund. There is no clear indication that this is still the case and the amount going into the fund is not tied to the revenue. However, the impression that this is the case likely persists, so we'll go with it for now.

There is a federal excise tax on fuel currently at 10c per litre of fuel ¹. This is separate from HST, GST, PST, and the carbon taxes which are all different taxes and vary depending upon that location. This money all goes into the big government pot of money the Consolidate Revenue Fund ².

The Government doesn't break this down much in it's accounts, but for all fuel sold in Canada, the Government received $5.6 billion in tax revenue in 2023-24 ³.

The Canada Community Building Fund receives $2.4 billion per year from the Consolidated Revenue Fund ⁴. Of that in 2024-2025, British Columbia will receive $313 million. Disbursements are "allocated on a per-capita basis, with some adjustments".

Since the money incoming to the province is split on a per capita basis, let's do similar with the revenue going to the government. The population of British Columbia is estimated to be 5,698,430 people ⁵ out of an estimated population of 41,465,298 in Canada in 2024.

So we can now say that:

• In 2023-24 British Columbia contributed $769,302,600 in excise tax on fuel (about $135 per person)
• In 2024-25 British Columbia will receive $313,000,000 from the Canada Community Building Fund (about $55 per person)

When money arrives in the Canada Community Building Fund, it's up to the municipalities and province to decide allocation. Does it all go on roads? Nope. There are 19 different categories listed ⁶ including: public transit, drinking water, culture, sport, tourism and "local roads and bridges". So far I've found a list of muncipalities the money has gone to, but not what it's spent on.

You don't just pay the excise tax on fuel if you drive a car. It's built into the pricing and costs of so many things. Trucks that deliver your groceries to supermarkets, buses that move you around, trains that move grain to the ports and so on. It's something that we all pay in society if we use something moved by fossil fuel. It's just that if you drive a car, you'll pay more for it.

One note is that the financial report states that in 2023-2024:

"Energy taxes fell by $0.1 billion, or 1.0 per cent, reflecting lower motive fuel consumption"

This might be due to more electric vehicles, less miles driven or more fuel efficient vehicles. Electric vehicles provide a funding problem for governments, something that we'll see when we jump into Translink funding next...