cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ca/post/34926056
Canada has implemented a new tax savings from December to February for some things like taxable groceries, crafts, and gaming physical media. I wanted to get a new Xbox controller and found the best price at Walmart for $55 a week ago. The tax holiday starts today and I now see that the $55 has increased to $62 and change, which is about how much tax I should be saving. Great to see this thinly veiled attempt to help Canadians ( /s - win votes) is just going to be extra profit in the corporations’ pockets.
Tolls on every road isnt the wosrt idea. Roads are massively subsidizsed and most places cannot afford their upkeep because driving has been artificially cheap for a very long time. I’d have a hard time actually supporting tolls or congestion pricing until alternatives like high speed rail exist, but the conept of making drivers pay more would overall be a good thing for society and municpal budgets.
Drivers increase healthcare costs through accidents, so less driving saves on healthcare. They technically increase healthcare costs through a more sedantry lifestyle too, but that metric is hard to measure. City budgets are constantly wasted on adding more lanes that never actually fix traffic, and our lanes are often wider than they need to be, adding even more costs to construction and maintaince.