Letters: It’s time for the provincial government to address gasoline prices

Editor:

Enough is enough. The incredible distortion of gas prices at the pump in British Columbia borders on collusion and crime. There is no need for the citizens of British Columbia to endure the constant torment of price increases and decreases for a product that is essentially a commodity.

In the Maritimes, particularly Prince Edward Island, there is a provincial price regulator that monitors the price of gasoline at the pump and only allows increases or decreases twice a month. This allows the economy, businesses and everyday people to plan and live their lives without the fear and worry of not knowing what it will cost to drive their trucks and cars.

Most people don’t know how gasoline is distributed in North America, my father was in the oil business all his life and was always amazed at how much money the oil industry made when a barrel of oil was only five dollars and contained 45 imperial gallons. This barrel of oil has gone up or down and up and down from $5 to $150 over the past 20 years.

Oil prices these days are absolutely ridiculous and based on nothing other than what was agreed upon. One of the scariest phrases in our society is when a company uses the term! Increase in shareholder value.

What this really means to the public is that these companies can’t care less about their customers, whether or not they’re cannon fodder in the ongoing price-fixing per liter of gasoline. If this were an openly competitive market, do you really think that all retail gas stations probably wouldn’t be priced the same, but if they dip into the same oil vat as everyone, then the collusion comes full circle.

North American gasoline is pumped into the so-called grid, the grid is almost 3,000,000 miles not kilometers, miles of pipeline oil is pumped through stations like Anacortes or Woodside, Nova Scotia or Portland Maine, you name it, it will pumped into the grid refineries is converted into many products and delivered through the pipelines across the continent. It takes 90 days to drain the pipeline network. So if you see the price of gas going up and down on a daily, weekly, or monthly basis, it’s total greed. The reality is, if oil prices rise five percent from supplier prices, you shouldn’t move for at least 90 days because all products in the grid are at the old price. The government doesn’t understand the oil business for some reason.

Let’s question the oil business, when companies like Exxon are making $40 billion in profits and the government is taking in billions of dollars in excess taxes, the only person who loses is the consumer

I tell everyone call your MLA in Victoria. Start calling your federal representative in Ottawa. Start spreading your message on Facebook, Twitter and Tick-Tock. Start persecuting these politicians because they are the problem. They allow these oil companies to take advantage of everyone.

Let’s put some sanity back into retail gasoline prices.

The solution is relatively simple, make it a standing order in BC that retail gasoline prices can only move twice a month and not by more than two or three percent and before they move we need a real cost justification , not greed.

Barrie McDonald