Gouge us once, shame on you, gouge us twice shame on us…

We continue with our review of old news from Thursday, with a look at the Daily news story on the recent petition campaign delivered to the BC Legislature, as weary British Columbians begin to ask why our gasoline costs seem to fluctuate and rise incrementally over the last few months.

A situation that became rather clear with a day trip into Terrace on Monday morning, where the price of gas is but 1.19, a full six cents less expensive that it is ninety minutes down the highway.

GAS PRICE ‘GOUGING’ FUELLING PETITION CAMPAIGN
By Leanne Ritchie
The Daily News
Thursday, May 31, 2007
Page one

North Coast MLA Gary Coons presented a petition to the Legislature last week, calling on the government to take action on gas ‘price gouging’.

Coons, along with 17 colleagues, presented approximately 1,000 signatures. The MLA’s presented, in total, around 18,000 signatures on behalf of Jon McComb. The World Today, and Fight Back Fridays calling on the House to do something about gas prices.

“Something must be done,” said Coons. “I’m disappointed that the provincial Liberal government has yet to show support for the Retail Petroleum Consumer Protection Act that was introduced and debated in the legislature a couple of weeks ago.”

The Act, introduced by NDP Energy critic John Horgan, was debated but due to time constraints, it didn’t reach a vote.

“We continue to hear and see the price gouging and ripping –off of consumers, especially on the North and Central Coast and the Queen Charlotte Islands. Large oil companies make record profits while working British Columbians are struggling to make ends meet; we must regulate gasoline prices as we do other forms of energy,” he said.

Gas continues to sit at $1.25.9 a litre a record high for the region. It’s been at that price since just before the May long weekend and could put a damper on rubber tire traffic traveling to the area during the summer tourist season.

Coons, noted that the Ontario Minister of Energy recently called on the federal government to give the Competition Bureau the power to conduct a thorough investigation into gas price gouging.

And according to reports from the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives (CCPA), one can calculate the amount that the oil companies are overcharging British Columbians.

The CCPA’s study he said, revealed that the oil companies have been inflating the price of gas by as much as 27 cents per gallon in Vancouver, 18 cents in Edmonton, 15 cents in Toronto and 19 cents in Halifax.
In Prince Rupert, the gouging is anywhere from 24 to 26 cents per litre, Coons claimed.

“We’re being victimized at the pump with the high prices while large petroleum companies are raking in huge amounts of profit on the backs of people that purchase their product. The NDP is going to vote to protect the rights of consumers; we introduced this Act. Now is the time to for people to put the pressure on Liberal MLA’s to stop industry from gouging people on the North Coast and elsewhere in B. C. The price of gas in Prince Rupert has gone from 90.1 cents in December 2006 to 125.5 cents (or more), an increase of 40 per cent.”

Coons has a new petition going and it is available in his office for people to sign.

The petition asks the legislature to take action to protect consumers from so-called price gouging that is taking place due to what Coons believes is the uncompetitive nature of the industry.

“We need to convince this government that regulation is a workable first step and the first thing governments should do is to monitor and probe price gouging by oil companies,” he said.