The Reminder is making its archives back to 2003 available on our website. Please note that, due to technical limitations, archive articles are presented without the usual formatting.
Gouging. That is the way motorists saw last weekÕs overnight jump of more than 12 cents for a litre of gasoline, in anticipation of damage from Hurricane Ike to Gulf Coast refineries (most of which did not happen). Even Prime Minister Stephen Harper, a laissez-faire conservative, said: ÒWell, it certainly appears that way to me.Ó The oil companies, all injured innocence, responded with lectures about the way the gasoline market works. ÒWe operate in the context of a North American market for fuel,Ó said Peter Boag, president of the Canadian Petroleum Products Institute. ÒSo things that happen anywhere in North America have an impact on fuel prices in Canada.Ó But why did prices have to go up so fast so quickly, since the gasoline being sold last Friday morning was from the same product pool that was selling 12 cents a litre less the night before? And if it is a North American market, why did prices rise more steeply in Canada than in the United States? And why does it always seem to take gasoline prices longer to come down than to go up? On the federal election trail, the various party leaders were challenged on these questions, and all responded with vows of action in one form or another. ÒItÕs time somebody stood up to these companies and these gougers,Ó said NDP Leader Jack Layton. But consumer prices are a provincial, not a federal, responsibility, so motorists here should look to provincial governments, not Ottawa, for answers. Five provinces Ð all the ones east of Ontario Ð have responded to the roller-coaster ride of gasoline prices by regulating them and smoothing over the spikes. The oil companies say government regulation actually leads to higher prices for consumers on average as Òcompetition is diminished.Ó But after viewing the competition at work last week, when all the gasoline retailers raised their prices by the same amount on the same morning, consumers are entitled to ask just who benefits from the current unregulated market west of Quebec. Regulation of gasoline prices has long been eschewed by the Government of Ontario, for one, no matter what its political stripe. But it may be time for another look at this idea.
