I would like to take this opportunity to respond to Mr. Barnes concerning his recent posting to this newspaper “Gas prices make perfect sense”. You are right, they do — but only to those who are doing their best to fleece the consumer.
We all have taxes added to the price of gas, some areas in the province pay more taxes than we do here in Duncan (and also receive more transportation benefits) and we all suffer from the falling value of the Canadian dollar.
The implication that there is (and has been) a shortage of gasoline is, quite frankly, horse manure. Have petrol stations run out of product? No. Have there been lineups to get your share of a dwindling product? No. Have gas rationing cards been issued? No. Obviously, there is no real fuel shortage. What you do have is called “just in time delivery”, designed to give the appearance of a shortage of fuels. “Yes, that fuel truck arrived ‘just in time’ or we would have run out of fuel,” says the petrol station owner.
This allows the oil companies to justify their claim of a fuel shortage equating to high prices. For those who wish to believe this gibberish, I have a couple of bridges I’d like to sell, cheap.
In my opinion, the driving force behind the present high price of fuel can be summed up in one word: GREED. At all levels.
The analogy of the farmer is interesting but a few things were left out: When the farmer sells his grain, he no longer has any monetary control of it, unlike the oil companies who: a. own the crude; b. own the refineries; c. own/control most of the transportation fleet; d. own/control most of the retail outlets. And at each stage, they make profits. If only farmers could control their grain in the same fashion!
What we do need is price control, similar to that of Prince Edward Island where the price of all fuels are regulated at the pump, with self serve being $.02 per litre less than full service.
The price of self serve regular gas there today is $.959 min., $.970 Max. (www.irac.pe.ca/document.aspx?file=petrol/currentprices.asp).
Today, Jan. 9, gas can be purchased for $.869 in Prince George, as opposed to $1.069 in Duncan. (Thank you Co-op Gas. If it wasn’t for your leading the way, I’m sure the price would be a lot higher here.) In my opinion, the $.20/litre difference in this price is also spelled: GREED.
Don Dawson
Duncan