So today a local gas retailer jacked up the price on gasoline 8.5 cents a litre to 94.9 from 86.4 cents.
Others will no doubt follow suit because that’s what happens in the service station industry. I call it price fixing.
Oh they say they don’t and the competition board says they don’t but let’s get real. I was in the business once.
There is no justifiable reason to raise fuel prices. Oil prices are still down — $43.50 a barrel last time I looked.
The Canadian dollar is down but so what? They don’t buy oil to refine it in U.S. dollars.
They’re a Canadian based company and they buy it in Alberta and so they probably use Canadian dollars.
And it doesn’t cost any more to make litre of gasoline now than it did when the price was down to 74.9 cent a litre just a couple months ago.
All it amounts to is gouging the consumers and Premier Jim Prentice’s government is letting them get away with it.
We need to regulate gasoline prices in Alberta like they do in P.E.I. It is an essential service to the public and the price needs to be capped.
I wonder which political party will campaign on that platform for the up and coming election?
Dale Stuart
Red Deer