Enough with the gouging at the pumps Already...

[whowhere]

http://www.gasticker.com/us/index.php

Gas on Average in the US is a $1.90 a gallon. 1.90/3.78 Litres = 50.3 cents a litre.

http://ca.finance.yahoo.com/currency/conve...;submit=Convert

With exchange of 1.22 we should be paying 60 cents a litre.

Why the eff are we paying 85 cents or more in Ontario?

The fact is, ESSO which is Exon Mobile is Canada's Largest Gas Refiner, followed by Petro Canada and Sunoco. Exon Mobile Made 60 Billion in profits last year. I would have to say stupid is what stupid does - Canada!

If Exon is able to Retail Gas in the US for 50 cents US and make Billions, they should have no problem retailing Gas to Canada at the same price point and still make billions.

http://www.indexmundi.com/canada/oil_consumption.html

Canada consumes 2.37 million barrels of Oil a day =>

http://tonto.eia.doe.gov/ask/gasoline_faqs.asp

1 Barrel of oil generates 19.6 gallons of Gasoline or 74 litres. Canada consumes

2.37 million X 74 Litres = 199,800,000 Litres of Gasoline per Day.

Canadians are Being ripped off 25 cents per litre X 199,800,000 equalling about 50 million dollars per day.

50 million X 365 = about 18 billion.

Exons Profit 60 Billion, how much of that is by Gouging Canadians?

The only way to fight back is to drive down to the states with a trailer full of Gerry Cans and fill them up and come back across the border.

The fact is 90% of Canada's population lives very close to the US border. We all have the ability to drive this point home that we will not accept this difference any longer. Get your trailers and Gerry Cans and start protesting.

[Smallc]

With exchange of 1.22 we should be paying 60 cents a litre.

Why the eff are we paying 85 cents or more in Ontario?

Well, in Manitoba, total gas tax is 21.5 C per litre...plus GST.

[August1991]

Gas on Average in the US is a $1.90 a gallon. 1.90/3.78 Litres = 50.3 cents a litre.

...

With exchange of 1.22 we should be paying 60 cents a litre.

Why the eff are we paying 85 cents or more in Ontario?

Gasoline and diesel fuel are taxed by the federal, provincial and territorial governments.

At the federal level:

•The excise tax on gasoline is 10 cents per litre while the excise tax on diesel fuel and aviation fuel is 4 cents per litre. Since these amounts are charged at flat rates per litre rather than on a percentage basis, the amount of excise revenue the Government receives does not vary with price changes at the pump.

•The goods and services tax (GST) is 7 per cent of the final price paid for fuel, including federal and provincial excise taxes levied at the producer/wholesaler level, and is embedded in the retail price. The GST does not apply to provincial sales taxes levied at the pump as a percentage of the final price.

...

At the provincial/territorial level:

•Tax rates on gasoline range from 6.2 cents per litre in the Yukon to around 21 cents per litre in Prince Edward Island (see table in Section 4 for all provincial/territorial rates).

•As a national average, the provincial tax rates on gasoline are about 14.5 cents per litre.

Link

There are also municipal taxes.

[Oleg Bach]

This vibratory vasilation that is gas pricing - it intentionally designed to mentally shake down the consumer and break his resolve .... It's like kiss you smack you...or look right then left - and repeat this at a high frequency and all becomes a blur.. YES this abuse buy these smart ass oil guys must stop---they torment the population to make them ill..and weak and pliable - time to take over the refineries and toss these sadistic greedy power mongering jerks out of town!

[whowhere]

Not only do we pay more per litre we also consume more gasoline because of Canada's colder climate. That works out to a 15% premium.

Canada is an oil producing country yet Canadians get zero benefit from this. Their benefit is to be exploited and ripped off by Canada's politicians.

If Canadians are paying so much in gas taxes where is the money going?

[whowhere]

http://www.neb.gc.ca/clf-nsi/rpblctn/ctsnd.../fmgdQ-eng.html

Canada's corrupt politicians and bureacrats are so clever and smart. You can forget about bringing in Gas from the US. The only solution is to regain Canada's refining.

Because Canadians are paying 18 billion more for Gas than Americans in After tax dollars. Canadians are also paying Income tax on that 18 billion. Income tax of at least 5 billion a year.

I am sure a refinery can be built with the 5 Billion stolen by the Conservative party of Canada. It seams like the Conservatives are more interested in handing over record profits to exon mobile than building a strong prosperous Canada.

[Oleg Bach]

http://www.neb.gc.ca/clf-nsi/rpblctn/ctsnd.../fmgdQ-eng.html

Canada's corrupt politicians and bureacrats are so clever and smart. You can forget about bringing in Gas from the US. The only solution is to regain Canada's refining.

Because Canadians are paying 18 billion more for Gas than Americans in After tax dollars. Canadians are also paying Income tax on that 18 billion. Income tax of at least 5 billion a year.

I am sure a refinery can be built with the 5 Billion stolen by the Conservative party of Canada. It seams like the Conservatives are more interested in handing over record profits to exon mobile than building a strong prosperous Canada.

Conservatism is to conserve for a select few....most old conservatives are social and economic Darwinists. They justify their actions by maintaining the idea that human beings are victims of their own human nature - that they are all - greedy - that they are all self serving - that they are all ego centric - the reality is they are describing themselves.

[Smallc]

There are also municipal taxes.

In some places maybe.

[Machjo]

Supply and demand.

I have a few recommendations to lower the price at the pump, and they all relate to reducing demand.

1. Shift taxes from income to gas. This will give people more disposable income but also make gas less attractive. Though the overall price would increace, the reduced demand woud cause the before-tax price to drop at least.

2. Build or maintain fewer roads. This will encourage people to find more space-efficient means of transport, which will likely mean lighter vehicles per passenger and thus more fuel efficient.

3. Build more walking and cycling paths, either elevated, surface, or underground, perhaps even enclosed ones that can be used year-round. This could enourage more people to walk or cycle instead of consuming gas.

4. If necessary, gradually replace old buses with double-decker buses. They're more space efficient on the roads, thus allowing them to take on more passengers as more people look for alternative means of transport to cars.

5. If that doesn't suffice, build inner-city rail systems, be they subways, surface trains, or elevated trains. This would also reduce demand for gas.

If we could do any or all of these, this would help to reduce demand for gas and so push the price, or at least pre-tax price, of gas. The flip side of this is that you'd pay more gas tax and find more congestion on the roads.

[Oleg Bach]

Supply and demand - ? As a kid I thought that if I sold 100 apples for a dollar a piece - I was doing all right - and if buisness increased and I sold 500 apples for a dollar a piece BUISNESS WAS GREAT! This straight forward approach let to an eternal sustainable economy.. all would win..I would be rich and all would have apples.

I could never understand the sense or long term out come of SUPPLY AND DEMAND...This concept is religious in scope and fanatical - it leads to inflation - devaluation of money - and socio-economic collapse as we now are witnessing..we have to get rid of this concept...It does not work in the long term - and we are here for the long term.

[August1991]

Canada is an oil producing country yet Canadians get zero benefit from this. Their benefit is to be exploited and ripped off by Canada's politicians.

Companies are granted the right to explore for and develop petroleum and natural gas resources, in exchange for the value to Albertans that flows from development in the form of royalties, bonus bid payments (the amount of money offered or bid for the mineral rights) and rents.

In 2005-2006, Alberta non-renewable energy royalty revenue amounted to $14.347 billion. According to Third Quarter Update for 2006-2007 projections, it is anticipated that non-renewable resource revenue will total $11.745 billion in 2006-2007.

Link

Canadian politicians and bureaucrats may rip off ordinary Canadians but I don't see how oil makes any difference in this. For example, are Albertan politicians more dishonest than, say, New Brunswick politicians?

[Oleg Bach]

Link

Canadian politicians and bureaucrats may rip off ordinary Canadians but I don't see how oil makes any difference in this. For example, are Albertan politicians more dishonest than, say, New Brunswick politicians?

If the resourse is on Crown land - then the people have a right to it at cost - and those that are granted privledge and licence to mine oil that is the common wealth should back off - how much more money do they need?

[85RZ500]

Gas is about $3.90 for a Canadian gallon right now, way too high. The politicians and media talk about everything else affecting the economy but forget about the liquid gold.

Not only has it reduced our disposable income but think of how it's upped the transportation cost of the consumables we buy. Those increased costs have been passed on to us further reducing our disposable income as well as our buying power.

The stimpacks that will be handed out will do nothing if the cost of fuel remains high.

If the oil/gas/broker/speculator cabal starts it's ratchet dance upward again, they might as well flush the money, our money, down the toilet.

[Machjo]

Supply and demand - ? As a kid I thought that if I sold 100 apples for a dollar a piece - I was doing all right - and if buisness increased and I sold 500 apples for a dollar a piece BUISNESS WAS GREAT! This straight forward approach let to an eternal sustainable economy.. all would win..I would be rich and all would have apples.

I could never understand the sense or long term out come of SUPPLY AND DEMAND...This concept is religious in scope and fanatical - it leads to inflation - devaluation of money - and socio-economic collapse as we now are witnessing..we have to get rid of this concept...It does not work in the long term - and we are here for the long term.

So what are you suggesting? The world's oil suppy is shrinking while more people want to buy cars. Just look at China. In the last few years, China has been competing more and more with Japan for oil supplies from Russia. Some European countries also rely on Russia. It's only common sence that Russia will ell to the highest bidder. So as China imports more, China, Japan and European countries will have to outbid each other ever more. This also means that some European countries, asthey see the price rise in Russia, will start looking to other cources such as the Middle East.

Well, as it turns out, China is now Iran's biggest oil consumer. So that leaves the rest of the world with less oil from Iran. So now we have more European countries competing for Middle Eastern oil. Meanwhile the UK's Black Sea Oil supply ain't getting any bigger either, as Eastern Europeans get richer and consume more fuel themselves, not to mention the economic rise of India. And the US oil supply is shrinking, so it then has to compete more for Canadian Oil.

So it's natural that we all now have to outbid each other for the oil supply. This isn't some fanatical religion but economic theory.

[85RZ500]

Supply and demand. They control the supply and incite the demand. It's a game being played by the oil/gas/broker/cabal, period.

[Wild Bill]

Supply and demand.

I have a few recommendations to lower the price at the pump, and they all relate to reducing demand.

1. Shift taxes from income to gas. This will give people more disposable income but also make gas less attractive. Though the overall price would increace, the reduced demand woud cause the before-tax price to drop at least.

2. Build or maintain fewer roads. This will encourage people to find more space-efficient means of transport, which will likely mean lighter vehicles per passenger and thus more fuel efficient.

3. Build more walking and cycling paths, either elevated, surface, or underground, perhaps even enclosed ones that can be used year-round. This could enourage more people to walk or cycle instead of consuming gas.

4. If necessary, gradually replace old buses with double-decker buses. They're more space efficient on the roads, thus allowing them to take on more passengers as more people look for alternative means of transport to cars.

5. If that doesn't suffice, build inner-city rail systems, be they subways, surface trains, or elevated trains. This would also reduce demand for gas.

If we could do any or all of these, this would help to reduce demand for gas and so push the price, or at least pre-tax price, of gas. The flip side of this is that you'd pay more gas tax and find more congestion on the roads.

I rather doubt if these suggestions would work in the manner you seem to think. They sound like something from the Toronto City Council. That city is a nightmare to drive in!

Make gas more expensive? Fewer roads to make congestion even worse? Older folks trying to buy family groceries or take the kids to karate on the back of a bike or if walking, on their backs?

Maybe this is how the world looks from the dorm windows of Queens University but if we implemented your suggestions we would probably have thousands of ordinary citizens going "postal" in the streets!

Here's the way it is in the real world. Pleasure driving all but disappeared 20 years ago. People drive because they have no choice! Maybe they started off living close to their job but then the company closed that branch, re-located or went out of business. So they likely could only find a job at the end of a long commute. If they sell their house to move closer they likely would take a huge loss, since house prices are always higher closer to the major centres, as in Toronto. Besides, the two income family is the norm today. Not to live high off the hog, either. Just to live! The other marital partner likely still has a local job. If the family moved it would mean the OTHER partner would then have to commute!

It is difficult for anyone to carry a week's worth of groceries for the typical family on the bus. Even if they were all "supermen" and WANTED to walk or cycle carrying that load ask them again in January! This is Canada and we have a winter, after all.

We don't have enough roads now in many areas. People hate the traffic but have no choice if they want a job. If you think that having even fewer roads and making gasoline more expensive would help then you obviously are not considering how long it would take to make any positive adjustment. Decades, perhaps even generations! How to you expect people to cope in the meantime? It's a wonder right now that more people are not "flipping out" on the QEW commute to Toronto every day. You want to tighten the screws on those poor people even more?

As for subways and elevated rails, public transit will NEVER be anything but a citizen's second, third or even last choice! If you force them to take it they will only resent it, assuming they can make it work for their situation at all! Public transit cannot serve everywhere equally. It always seems that you end up walking more than riding. My wife works for the City and they periodically get meetings encouraging them to "Take the Bus!". We live in a residential area of the eastern side of Hamilton. Her work is in the upper part of the city. It takes 10 minutes to drive there. As an experiment, she tried the bus one day. After all the transfers, waiting and walking from bus stops a fair distance from the destination it took her over 90 minutes! And this was in the summer. There is no way she would ever attempt it in January or February. As I said, we do NOT live in the "boonies"!

Double decker buses? The ones we have seem to be lightly used now.

Public transit is only efficient if you have only one large residential area and one area where all the jobs are situated. Outside of Soviet Russia, where is such a city in the real world?

Even if for the sake of argument we agreed that your suggestions might work, the period of adjustment necessary is simply too long! People would suffer immense hardship, grow old and probably die before they could see any benefit, FOR THEMSELVES! Society as a whole might eventually reap the rewards but the citizens of today wouldn't.

Last, what you're suggesting would be political suicide for any party that tried it! Any solution that imposes immediate severe pain against a POSSIBLE long term benefit for "the good of society", which Ayn Rand defined best as "everyone in general and no one in particular but never, ever YOU!" would be an impossible sell.

I would dearly love to see certain politicians try!

[Wilber]

Supply and demand.

I have a few recommendations to lower the price at the pump, and they all relate to reducing demand.

1. Shift taxes from income to gas. This will give people more disposable income but also make gas less attractive. Though the overall price would increace, the reduced demand woud cause the before-tax price to drop at least.

2. Build or maintain fewer roads. This will encourage people to find more space-efficient means of transport, which will likely mean lighter vehicles per passenger and thus more fuel efficient.

3. Build more walking and cycling paths, either elevated, surface, or underground, perhaps even enclosed ones that can be used year-round. This could enourage more people to walk or cycle instead of consuming gas.

4. If necessary, gradually replace old buses with double-decker buses. They're more space efficient on the roads, thus allowing them to take on more passengers as more people look for alternative means of transport to cars.

5. If that doesn't suffice, build inner-city rail systems, be they subways, surface trains, or elevated trains. This would also reduce demand for gas.

If we could do any or all of these, this would help to reduce demand for gas and so push the price, or at least pre-tax price, of gas. The flip side of this is that you'd pay more gas tax and find more congestion on the roads.

You don't set foot outside your city very often do you.

[madmax]

Supply and demand. They control the supply and incite the demand. It's a game being played by the oil/gas/broker/cabal, period.

Time to get rid of the two stroke

[Vancouver King]

Harper was asked directly during the last election campaign if Canadians were being ripped off at the pumps. He answered yes, consumers were being fleeced. Since then nothing, no follow up and no action to stop the ripoff. What does this say about our PM's priorities?

Harper has been quoted to the effect on his readiness to do anything required to speed economic recovery. Why not action to get the heavy costs of these oil parasites off the backs of consumers?

[Machjo]

Supply and demand. They control the supply and incite the demand. It's a game being played by the oil/gas/broker/cabal, period.

The war in Iraq and Afghanistan doesn'thelp either. Hummers, tanks, ships and planes aren't the most fuel efficient vehicles on the planet either.

[Molly]

...Giggle...

Someone should work up a colourized map of Canada highlighting the areas that are within 50k of a traffic light, much less public transit.

Edited April 16, 2009 by Molly

[Hydraboss]

Molly, I agree. Perhaps there needs to be a small amount of reality injected into some of these people.

I'm leaving for work. My office is 75km one way (but not nearly that far as the crow flies). It already takes me over an hour.

Maybe I should take my kids bike. Just have to figure out how to mount my laptop case and briefcase.

[Wild Bill]

...Giggle...

Someone should work up a colourized map of Canada highlighting the areas that are within 50k of a traffic light, much less public transit.

A wise old man once said; "Everyone's got a great idea that won't work!"

A wise old woman once said "Details, it's always details!" (Gilda Radner)

I call this phenomenon "intellectual diarrhea". We all suffer a touch of it through adolescence but with many folks it becomes chronic and settles in for their lifetime.

They confuse being articulate with actually having knowledge and perspective. Anyone halfways intelligent can spin and extrapolate a few facts into an argument. The problem is that with too few facts you can "prove" anything! All that's contradictory is not yet under consideration.

So they will spew out vast amounts of what might sound well-reasoned but collapses under the slightest realistic scrutiny. Like Prohibition style anti-drug approaches or registering legal gun owners instead of attacking actual criminals. They can make all the noise they want but the results cannot be disputed.

Oh well, thus it has always been!

[whowhere]

The point is, is it to much to ask for Canadians to have price parity at the pumps with the US? For eff sakes we are an oil exporter. Canada as a Country makes money because of this. If the US can get by at whatever they are being charged at the pump then it would be fair to say Canada can as well.

Canadians should not accept excuses from our politicians. It's time we demand this from them. Canadians need to elect politicians who will construct and pass a law making Canada's retail prices at par with the US pump prices.

I don't care what any poster says, Canadians deserve this and should have this. Make it happen.

[bush_cheney2004]

The point is, is it to much to ask for Canadians to have price parity at the pumps with the US? For eff sakes we are an oil exporter. Canada as a Country makes money because of this. If the US can get by at whatever they are being charged at the pump then it would be fair to say Canada can as well.

Ya might want to look at the tax situation, eh?

Canadians should not accept excuses from our politicians. It's time we demand this from them. Canadians need to elect politicians who will construct and pass a law making Canada's retail prices at par with the US pump prices.

Why not Mexico....or Venezuela....oil exporters just like Canada.

I don't care what any poster says, Canadians deserve this and should have this. Make it happen.

Many do...just by driving across the border for cheaper gas and cigarettes.