Robbery by Government Officials at the Pumps
Who let the dogs out?
In the U.S., pit bulls are going for blood over price gouging at the gas pumps. And they take no bull, with fiesty New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer nailing 15 gas stations with gouging and fining them $63,500 US after Hurricane Katrina hit.
One gas station found guilty of gouging even had the nerve to triple its mark-up, while authorties concluded some stations used the disaster to raise prices well beyond what was warranted by market forces.
And what happens in Canada? Ottawa unleashes its lap dogs who lick the faces of our oil cartel, finding no evidence of price fixing -- even though prices skyrocketed to as high as $1.50 a litre in some parts of the country. A few stations were even found posting even higher prices, while motorists complained of looting.
But no, according to our Competition Bureau, the gouging was totally justified by the hurricane, which forced wholesale prices to jump.
Then, to slap us in the face again, on the very day the long-awaited report was released -- pump prices zoomed to 99.5 cents a litre, to hit over $1 at some stations.
"This is a complete whitewash," said Liberal consumer critic Dan McTeague, who accused our oil oligopoly of using the not-guilty verdict as an opportunity to fleece motorists' pockets even more. McTeague maintains pump prices should be in the 95 cents range.
DISMAYED
Jane Savage, president and CEO of the Canadian Independent Petroluem Marketers Association, said her members were dismayed with the findings.
"We believe evidence points to a different conclusion: That Katrina gave us all a dramatic case in point that there is a blatant practice of wholesale (rack) pricing parallelism by Canada's refiners, demonstrating the huge control that the major refiners enjoy in Canadian wholesale gasoline markets. This is resulting in Canadians paying higher prices than they should."
Bottom line Canada's Big Four (Shell, Suncor, Petro-Canada and Esso) enjoy sweet oligopoly, owning more than 90% of Canada's refinery business and at least 85% of the retail market.
In the U.S. -- where some States have divorcement laws which disallow refiners from owning gas stations -- the Big Five (ExxonMobil, ChevronTexaco, ConocoPhillips, BP and Royal Dutch Shell) control 14.2% of global production, 48% of domestic production, 50.3% of domestic refinery capacity, and 61.8% of the retail market.
Meanwhile, we all know who's getting poor and who's getting rich. While consumers go broke gassing up their vehicles -- Ottawa's swimming in a gusher of tax revenues from the pumps, while Canada's oilpatch watch royalty cheques pour in. And oil giants are laughing all the way to the bank.
Combined profits for Canada's Big Four last year were $7.66 billion, with Esso raking in $2.6 billion, Shell Canada, $2.01 billion, Suncor, $1.25 billion and Petro-Canada $1.8 billion.
Even more stunning is the world's Big Three (Exxon Mobil, Chevron and Conoco Phillips) saw its combined profits soar to $63 billion US -- making them richer than half the world's nations.
John Williamson, federal director of the Canadian Taxpayers Federation, said it's time Prime Minister Stephen Harper gave consumers a break and made good on his promise to cut high taxes at the pump.
Last fall, Williamson and I delivered more than 35,000 coupons to Harper at Parliament, demanding a rollback of the deficit-fighting 1.5 cents hike in the federal excise tax, plus axing the GST, which is a tax on tax at the pumps.
DEFICIT WIPED OUT
Harper promised to axe the GST if prices hit over 85 cents a litre, and to cut the GST by 1% on all goods and services.
Fact is the excise tax was hiked to 10 cents a litre in 1995 to balance Ottawa's books, but the deficit was wiped out in 1998 with Ottawa now sitting on a surplus of $9 billion. And we're still paying.
The GST has lifted $4.8 billion from out pockets at the pumps, netting Ottawa an extra $175 million every time price go up by 10 cents.
"It's time to cut high taxes," said Williamson.
McTeague adds, "and overhaul our Competition Act."
TorontoSun
In the U.S., pit bulls are going for blood over price gouging at the gas pumps. And they take no bull, with fiesty New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer nailing 15 gas stations with gouging and fining them $63,500 US after Hurricane Katrina hit.
One gas station found guilty of gouging even had the nerve to triple its mark-up, while authorties concluded some stations used the disaster to raise prices well beyond what was warranted by market forces.
And what happens in Canada? Ottawa unleashes its lap dogs who lick the faces of our oil cartel, finding no evidence of price fixing -- even though prices skyrocketed to as high as $1.50 a litre in some parts of the country. A few stations were even found posting even higher prices, while motorists complained of looting.
But no, according to our Competition Bureau, the gouging was totally justified by the hurricane, which forced wholesale prices to jump.
Then, to slap us in the face again, on the very day the long-awaited report was released -- pump prices zoomed to 99.5 cents a litre, to hit over $1 at some stations.
"This is a complete whitewash," said Liberal consumer critic Dan McTeague, who accused our oil oligopoly of using the not-guilty verdict as an opportunity to fleece motorists' pockets even more. McTeague maintains pump prices should be in the 95 cents range.
DISMAYED
Jane Savage, president and CEO of the Canadian Independent Petroluem Marketers Association, said her members were dismayed with the findings.
"We believe evidence points to a different conclusion: That Katrina gave us all a dramatic case in point that there is a blatant practice of wholesale (rack) pricing parallelism by Canada's refiners, demonstrating the huge control that the major refiners enjoy in Canadian wholesale gasoline markets. This is resulting in Canadians paying higher prices than they should."
Bottom line Canada's Big Four (Shell, Suncor, Petro-Canada and Esso) enjoy sweet oligopoly, owning more than 90% of Canada's refinery business and at least 85% of the retail market.
In the U.S. -- where some States have divorcement laws which disallow refiners from owning gas stations -- the Big Five (ExxonMobil, ChevronTexaco, ConocoPhillips, BP and Royal Dutch Shell) control 14.2% of global production, 48% of domestic production, 50.3% of domestic refinery capacity, and 61.8% of the retail market.
Meanwhile, we all know who's getting poor and who's getting rich. While consumers go broke gassing up their vehicles -- Ottawa's swimming in a gusher of tax revenues from the pumps, while Canada's oilpatch watch royalty cheques pour in. And oil giants are laughing all the way to the bank.
Combined profits for Canada's Big Four last year were $7.66 billion, with Esso raking in $2.6 billion, Shell Canada, $2.01 billion, Suncor, $1.25 billion and Petro-Canada $1.8 billion.
Even more stunning is the world's Big Three (Exxon Mobil, Chevron and Conoco Phillips) saw its combined profits soar to $63 billion US -- making them richer than half the world's nations.
John Williamson, federal director of the Canadian Taxpayers Federation, said it's time Prime Minister Stephen Harper gave consumers a break and made good on his promise to cut high taxes at the pump.
Last fall, Williamson and I delivered more than 35,000 coupons to Harper at Parliament, demanding a rollback of the deficit-fighting 1.5 cents hike in the federal excise tax, plus axing the GST, which is a tax on tax at the pumps.
DEFICIT WIPED OUT
Harper promised to axe the GST if prices hit over 85 cents a litre, and to cut the GST by 1% on all goods and services.
Fact is the excise tax was hiked to 10 cents a litre in 1995 to balance Ottawa's books, but the deficit was wiped out in 1998 with Ottawa now sitting on a surplus of $9 billion. And we're still paying.
The GST has lifted $4.8 billion from out pockets at the pumps, netting Ottawa an extra $175 million every time price go up by 10 cents.
"It's time to cut high taxes," said Williamson.
McTeague adds, "and overhaul our Competition Act."
TorontoSun
posted by Ottawa Gas Prices | 11:57 PM
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