Ridiculous Gas Prices – 142.9 and Climbing

[krocky]

Ok lets forget the election and focus on something more of us can agree on. The ridiculous price of gas in this Province. Some stations are up to 142.9 in Penticton so I’m sure the rest will follow by days end. They are saying the reason is a couple of refineries have had to shut down on the west coast causing a “shortage”..!! BULLS#%^. There is no excuse for this blatant gouging other than sheer greed and we all know it. The long weekend is coming and that’s it, same as every long weekend. When will they run out of lame excuses and just admit it.

There is a glut of oil in North America so they need to limit supply otherwise the price will fall and they wouldn’t be able pay the high salaries or the big bonuses nor employ the expensive techniques for extracting oil from the tar sands or fracking etc.

It is time to do something about it. We can all sit around and whine or we can get off our butts and DO SOMETHING.. I say we pick a company such as Petro Canada and we boycott them right across the Province. I know this won’t put Petro Canada out of business, probably wouldn’t even hurt them but if you could get enough buy-in we could certainly send them one HECK of a message that we weren’t going to just “lie there” and take it anymore. Perhaps even a few retailers, who “would” feel the pinch, would put a little pressure on the company to be more reasonable. Maybe even a little organized picketing at the Petro Can Stations from time to time.

In any event it would be better to do something, anything, rather than to just keep repeating “NOTHING WE CAN DO” until $4.00/litre “NOTHING WE CAN DO” $5.00/litre, you get the point !!

[CTF]

They are just trying to capitalize on a long weekend as they always seem to do. I expect late next week they will lower the prices again. Annual May long weekend rip-off.

[GordonH]

According BC Gas price cheapest in BC is Duncan BC @ $1.249 (this report is 15 minutes old) ........ highest is Surrey and west @ $1.499 (this report is 3+ Hrs old)

[bipdl]

I despise the gouging as much as anyone else, but simply boycotting one or two oil companies for a day or two won't make any difference.

It's sort of like threatening to hold your breath till you get your way. They all well know you'll eventually come up for air, or in this case, fill your tank eventually. Their pockets are plenty deep enough to out-wait any regional "boycott" and they really couldn't care less whether you buy their gas on a Tuesday or on the following Saturday. Either way, you're gonna buy gas. You have to (unless you drive an electric), and they know it. Their bottom line is not affected at the end of the month.

It is only by goosing our elected officials into doing something other than continually whitewashing the boilerplate excuses oil companies feed them prior to regurgitating that same *bleep* to us (the public) that anything might happen.

This is what happens when free enterprise mega corporations are given absolutely free reign by legislators. Blame Harper and his cronies for not acting in Canadians' interest, not the unregulated industry members who are simply getting away with raping us "because they can".

If you really feel strongly enough about it, get on Dan Albas' case and make him earn his keep. Then get the whole nation to get on their MPs' backs to do what's needed to stop the rape. Isn't that what democracy's supposedly all about?

Good luck with THAT! (as you'll be going up against political ideologies and indifference because, hey, "they've got theirs" and have no reason to care what effect gas prices have on us mere mortals)

Your only option is to stop driving.

[GordonH]

I despise the gouging as much as anyone else, but simply boycotting one or two oil companies for a day or two won't make any difference.

It's sort of like threatening to hold your breath till you get your way. They all well know you'll eventually come up for air, or in this case, fill your tank eventually. Their pockets are plenty deep enough to out-wait any regional "boycott" and they really couldn't care less whether you buy their gas on a Tuesday or on the following Saturday. Either way, you're gonna buy gas. You have to (unless you drive an electric), and they know it. Their bottom line is not affected at the end of the month.

It is only by goosing our elected officials into doing something other than continually whitewashing the boilerplate excuses oil companies feed them prior to regurgitating that same *bleep* to us (the public) that anything might happen.

This is what happens when free enterprise mega corporations are given absolutely free reign by legislators. Blame Harper and his cronies for not acting in Canadians' interest, not the unregulated industry members who are simply getting away with raping us "because they can".

If you really feel strongly enough about it, get on Dan Albas' case and make him earn his keep. Then get the whole nation to get on their MPs' backs to do what's needed to stop the rape. Isn't that what democracy's supposedly all about?

Good luck with THAT! (as you'll be going up against political ideologies and indifference because, hey, "they've got theirs" and have no reason to care what effect gas prices have on us mere mortals)

Your only option is to stop driving.

There is another option other than stop driving, but some are unwilling to do this reason is they don't want to give up the gas hog in the driveway.
If your able (meaning don't really need that much vehicle) to downsize your vehicle you will improve your gas, diesel (or other) consumption of fuel.
Example:
11.3 litres per 100 KMs (25mpg) to 5.65 litres per 100 Kms (50mpg)
This would enable one to drive more if they want to or drive the same and put the savings to something else.

[krocky]

I despise the gouging as much as anyone else, but simply boycotting one or two oil companies for a day or two won't make any difference.

Who's talking about a day or two. I'm talking about a sustained boycott, all summer perhaps.. I know, the lazy ones won't drive by a gas station where there are no other cars and go to one where they might have to wait a few minutes. They would rather pay the high price and complain. That's why the odd picket day would help to "guilt" those who otherwise wouldn't participate.

BUT, just for fun, let's say things got rolling where 75% of BC boycotted Petro Canada for the summer. That has to hurt their profits a little. Like I said, surly some of the retailers would be hurting enough to apply some pressure on the company to help them out. The point is lets send a message, a REAL message and stop the "it won't help so why bother" attitude.

I was standing in line at a restaurant when the anti HST movement was very early and a young lady picked up a brochure off of the counter and asked her mother what it was all about. The mom said "oh they want you to sign a petition to try and fight the new HST tax". The young girl said "are you going to sign" and the mother replied, "no point they will never succeed". The young girl said, "MOM, if everyone has that attitude of course it won't succeed". My wife and I immediately signed the petition and so did 3 other people in the line. If a young girl is smart enough to see that, then we sure the heck should be able to..!!

[krocky]

Your only option is to stop driving.

If your able (meaning don't really need that much vehicle) to downsize your vehicle you will improve your gas, diesel (or other) consumption of fuel.

I get what you guys are saying and you can't argue that logic, however that puts the burden onto the consumer. Why should we have to stop driving, or trade in our vehicles and lose thousands so that oil company execs can get multi-million dollar bonuses. It makes no sense but if we continue to just stand by and let them they will continue until prices are $4.00/litre.

We need to act NOW to send a message, before its too late. I'm a business person and if I upped my prices 5 fold and you complained a little but continued to buy my products and I had no integrity and wanted a new boat, why on earth would I lower my price back down. Even if you called me a few names, I'd just laugh out there on the lake in my new cruiser. The ONLY way I would put the price back down is if you stopped buying my product, it's basic economics.. Just because we need it does not mean we have to " just take it". There are things we can do, we just have to be willing..!!

[GordonH]

Who's talking about a day or two. I'm talking about a sustained boycott, all summer perhaps.. I know, the lazy ones won't drive by a gas station where there are no other cars and go to one where they might have to wait a few minutes. They would rather pay the high price and complain. That's why the odd picket day would help to "guilt" those who otherwise wouldn't participate.

BUT, just for fun, let's say things got rolling where 75% of BC boycotted Petro Canada for the summer. That has to hurt their profits a little. Like I said, surly some of the retailers would be hurting enough to apply some pressure on the company to help them out. The point is lets send a message, a REAL message and stop the "it won't help so why bother" attitude.

I was standing in line at a restaurant when the anti HST movement was very early and a young lady picked up a brochure off of the counter and asked her mother what it was all about. The mom said "oh they want you to sign a petition to try and fight the new HST tax". The young girl said "are you going to sign" and the mother replied, "no point they will never succeed". The young girl said, "MOM, if everyone has that attitude of course it won't succeed". My wife and I immediately signed the petition and so did 3 other people in the line. If a young girl is smart enough to see that, then we sure the heck should be able to..!!

The ones that full summer boycott would even come close to doing anything, which equal almost nothing is one that does not supply to other companies.
So you need to find fuel company that only has outlets...... Save on Gas, Superstore, Safeway etc etc.

Because boycotting Petro-Canada will only effect the local station and it owner/manger, since Petro-Canada (Suncor) also supplies others with fuel. So whomever needs higher supply due to this boycott will be supplied with the fuel that the boycotters would have received if they had gone to Petro-Canada.

So boycotting major suppliers is fruitless idea, they will still get money for that boycotted fuel. The only ones that take a hit is local stations owners, thats it.

But carry on with your boycott idea.

[GordonH]

Breakdown price of 1 litre of fuel is as follow:
Rack Price
Transportation cost (i.e from Kamloops to Kelowna)
Station Owner/manger
Motor Fuel Tax (Provincial)
Carbon Tax (Provincial)
Federal Excise Tax
GST

[krocky]

Because boycotting Petro-Canada will only effect the local station and it owner/manger, since Petro-Canada (Suncor) also supplies others with fuel. So whomever needs higher supply due to this boycott will be supplied with the fuel that the boycotters would have received if they had gone to Petro-Canada.

So boycotting major suppliers is fruitless idea, they will still get money for that boycotted fuel. The only ones that take a hit is local stations owners, thats it.

OK, so the boycott would have to cover any station supplied by Petro-Canada (Suncor) or perhaps Chevron would be a better one to pick or go with Save On Gas, if that's the better choice. The point is let's do "SOMETHING". If we focus on what won't work nothing will ever get done. I know the local business owners would suffer but that's an issue for them to take up with the gas company. Let the gas company "subsidies" the local retailer for a while.

Why should we feel sorry for the retailer while we stand at the pump watching the dollars click away. If someone living in Summerland has to go to Penticton to find work and makes minimum wage, it is likely they will have to spend at least one days wages every week just on the gas to get to and from work. That's who I feel sorry for, not the retailer.

[krocky]

Breakdown price of 1 litre of fuel is as follow:

Thanks for that info, very helpful, so which of those fluctuate 10 cents at a time, the transportation cost? the Carbon Tax? Station Owner/Manager? ...NOPE - The Rack Price..!! That's my point.

[GordonH]

Breakdown price of 1 litre of fuel is as follow:

Thanks for that info, very helpful, so which of those fluctuate 10 cents at a time, the transportation cost? the Carbon Tax? Station Owner/Manager? ...NOPE - The Rack Price..!! That's my point.

Here is Rack Prices across Canada since Jan 1 of this year, go to column for Kamloops:
http://www.kentmarketingservices.com/dn ... 34&mid=886

here is breakdown of the taxes http://www.myhusky.ca/fuel/for_you/bc_f ... rates.html

[krocky]

Interesting, so BC sits about 10 cents per litre above the Canadian average and it certainly confirms that the price fluctuation is ALL the doing of the gas companies. There are now 2 stations up to 142.9 in Penticton with the rest soon to follow.
Better GAS-UP..!!

[Static]

Raise the tax on gas substantially to fund healthcare costs, much like taxes on tobacco.

[Crazy Horse]

Boycotting one company does not work, as was pointed out by someone else.

There is only one solution;

Stop or limit your buying. It is simple supply and demand, and if you can either drive less or buy a vehicle that goes farther on a tank then that's what you do. I traded in a gas pig for a VW Tiguan, and now I buy half the gas I did a month ago. Plus I try to buy most of my gas in Washington. I live 15 min from the border, and with my Safeway gas discount, I paid 84 cents a litre.