Gas Prices

Here is a subject I know warms the cockles of hearts around the world. The price of gas.
We have seen it steadily rise to a point where, here in Canada at least, it hovers around the $1.00/L mark. Remember when we thought it was outrageous that it was selling at 60 cents? Now we think it's a deal at $0.85. And we have to put it in the tank ourselves.

Oil companies report record breaking profits quarter after quarter and cry that they have to raise prices just to cover overhead. If they're just covering overhead, how can they have any profits? I especially like the line they used when they raised prices overnight. "It reflects the futures market and even if we don't use the extra money today, we will need it down the road to keep you supplied." A little bit different from what they said when the price of crude dropped and we should have seen a corresponding drop in prices at the pumps. "We have a 90 day supply in the lines that was purchased at a higher price, so we can't possibly drop the price as quickly as you'd like us to." Following that logic, shouldn't the pump price go up after the 90 day supply that is in the lines is used up?

They've dropped that line now that we've figured out the inherent lie and raise and lower the pump price at their leisure. I've seen prices fluctuate as many as 5 times in one day. They blame hurricanes in the gulf for wiping out refineries, thus they can't make enough gas and free markets dictate that the less any product is available, the more you charge for it. Fair enough, but the hurricanes didn't affect Canada directly. In an indirect way, they affected NAFTA, of which we are a partner. NAFTA says that gasoline is a saleable commodity and therefore open to free trade between us, the States and Mexico. So, when we say keep Alberta's oil in Canada and allow us to enjoy lower prices, the argument goes that we have to charge what the market will bear and thus suffer higher prices. If Canadian gas was cheaper than US gas, they would simply drive their trucks up here, buy up the whole supply and leave us high and dry.

What they don't say is that along with the greed of the oil companies, the government tax on a litre of gas is obscene. The GST on gas is simply a tax on tax which is supposed to be illegal and should be removed immediately. I can see a federal excise tax on gas as we do export it, but why is the PST and FST based on the price per litre including the excise tax. They should be based on the price per litre, period.

We all complain about the price of gas and ask for government inquiries into the price of it. Report after report comes back stating there is no evidence of collusion in gas pricing. I ask you to show me any competitive products, except gas, that have a price within 1/10th of a cent of one another. We are supposed to believe that the oil companies are so brilliant that they can get their prices so close to their competitors without Joe calling John and asking what they want to sell it for today. I don't think so. Of course, the government can't find any collusion. It would certainly not be in their best interests to expose this scam, considering the tax dollars they reap from it.

We've all seen the e-mails imploring us to boycott certain gas stations on certain days, but any rational person would know that this is a fool's game. Our country is just too big to organize something like that, instead of boycotting the station on say Tuesday, many people would just fill up on Monday, and anyone who voted Liberal in this election would just be too dumb to know what it is all about.

Britain pulled off a coup some years ago by boycotting gas stations and the government was forced to lower prices by lowering taxes. Way to go, guys and gals. There will always be an England. People send e-mails comparing the price of gas to coffee, bottled water, after shave and all sorts of nonsensical things. Sorry, I don't need any of that stuff to get to work to earn a living. I need gasoline. And I want cheap gasoline.