Goodale hits the ball out of the park, Fedeli says

Federal Finance Minister Ralph Goodale has hit a “home run” with the gasoline tax portion of his budget, North Bay Mayor Vic Fedeli says.

Goodale unveiled the budget Wednesday afternoon and part of includes sharing the federal excise tax on gas with Canadian cities.

The budget item will result in $5 billion over five years returned to municipalities, starting with a penny-and-a-half per litre and rising to 5 cents per litre by 2009-10.

“In that respect of it’s a home run, simply outstanding,” Fedeli said.

When broken down, and using the federal government’s numbers, North Bay’s portion of the tax works out to about a million dollars per year over the next two years, Fedeli said.

“So that’s serous money and it will grow considerably to well over $3 million by year five,” Fedeli said.

The money will be able to be used on things like public transit, water and waste water, energy and the treatment of solid waste, Fedeli said.

“These are things we spend millions on so we would hope it will translate directly into the pocket books of North Bay taxpayers,” Fedeli said.

The mayor said the federal money will actually be transferred to Ontario municipalities through the Ontario government, which is working out an agreement with the feds.

“Naturally we want to keep a cautious eye on it,” Fedeli said.

“And we will do our math to make sure we receive the amount of money we feel is our fair share.”