CALGARY, Alta. – Alberta residents shouldn’t expect any help from the government to combat escalating fuel prices, but they can expect to see gas revenues reinvested in the province’s highways.

That’s the message coming from Alberta Finance as well as the Canadian Taxpayers Federation.

“We applaud the fact that the Alberta government is spending 100 per cent of the fuel taxes on infrastructure,” Canadian Petroleum Products Institute regional vice-president Bill Levy told local media.

Alberta Finance spokesman, Ed Greenberg, explains investing the money raised from fuel taxes back into the roads makes more sense than providing citizens and businesses with individual gas rebates.

“In essence, it’s going back to (Albertans) anyways,” says Greenberg.

The City of Calgary is currently spending five cents/litre raised from gas taxes on road projects within the city.

The province plans to spend $581 million in fuel tax revenues on highways, which is about half of their overall transportation budget. n