Gas $1.14 A Litre In Quebec

[mirror]

I suppose you believe that a business person's lunch is a legitimate expenditure. Why are they so special ? Everyone has to eat lunch. The corporate tax deductions are close to criminal and would be if it were not for the secret corporate lobbying of our politicians.

We have an abundance of everything material in Canada. Public transit should be free to the everyone and paid for out of a solid taxe base.

[B. Max]

I suppose you believe that a business person's lunch is a legitimate expenditure. Why are they so special ? Everyone has to eat lunch. The corporate tax deductions are close to criminal and would be if it were not for the secret corporate lobbying of our politicians.

We have an abundance of everything material in Canada. Public transit should be free to the everyone and paid for out of a solid taxe base.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Like i've always said, socialism is just sugar coated communism. Yes a businessmans lunch is a legitimate expenditure and continues to this day only under a different claim. When they went after the socalled lunch deduction it was actually the truckers they went after. Reducing their claim to 50% of thirty three dollars a day. Which had been 100% then 80% and so on. While federal government employees were being given around seventy dollars a day and if they are in the US they claim it in US funds. The court battles are still going on over it.The government should not be in the tranportation business of any kind. It should be private and paid for by those who use it.

[mirror]

Oil price may rise above $75

Oil may rise above $75 a barrel in the next three months if the dispute over Iran’s nuclear programme causes the country to cut exports, said David Thurtell, head of commodity research at Commonwealth Bank of Australia.

Iran, OPEC’s second-largest producer, restarted work at its uranium processing plant at Isfahan last week. Iran risks UN sanctions and military action against its nuclear facilities, US President George W Bush said on Aug 13. Iran may respond by reducing oil sales, Mr Thurtell said in an Aug 18 report.

“If Iran cuts oil exports by even one million barrels a day, oil will quickly blow through $75 dollars a barrel,” said Mr Thurtell, who predicted on July 15 oil would trade above $65.

We're on a roll here folks, the price of oil is gonna go through the clouds.

[mirror]

Well maybe not through the clouds yet, but surpassed $67. today. Better keep that gas tank full at least until after Labour Day! Of couse there is no rigging of the prices by big huile!

[B. Max]

Well maybe not through the clouds yet, but surpassed $67. today. Better keep that gas tank full at least until after Labour Day!  Of couse there is no rigging of the prices by big huile!

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

How are they rigging the prices?

[mirror]

Link

OIL HITS US$68. A BARREL TODAY IN ASIAN TRADING

Many people will be using their bikes much, much more in the years to come.

I wonder if you can get snow tires for a bicycle. Oh yea, where I live I don't need snow tires, almost forgot.

Snow is not allowed here, at least for any extended period of time.

The time has come for our Canadian municipalities ot offer free public transportation to its users. The money to pay for it will come from the gasoline tax that is being reimbursed to our municipalities by our national government.

[mirror]

There was a poll in the National Post today about wherther or not people were upset with the high gasoline prices. 50% (well actually 49%) of Canadians said they were NOT. I guess we have better get used to these prices and just learn how to live with them. It is still only 50% of what they pay in Europe where apparently they are taxed quite a bit, unlike here in Canada.

[Riverwind]

The time has come for our Canadian municipalities ot offer free public transportation to its users. The money to pay for it will come from the gasoline tax that is being reimbursed to our municipalities by our national government.

What they need is more frequent service outside rush hour - not free service.

[mirror]

Yes it needs to be free, and paid for by our taxes. We are moving in that direction.

That way it will encourage people to get rid of some of their cars, and substantially reduce pollution. There were 500 premature deaths in Ontario alone this year because of their smog.

[mirror]

Here is an interestingly article about oil prices and what we can expect. For once an analyst is predicing prices to drop:

The Oil Price Mirage

[Riverwind]

Yes it needs to be free, and paid for by our taxes.  We are moving in that direction.

You are missing the point - it is not the cost - it is the convenience that causes most people to drive instead of transit. Many people I know switch from buses to cars when they replaced the direct buses between Richmond and Vancouver with the 98 B-line because of the time it took to wait for a connecting bus. Even if the buses were free these people would not take the buses because of the convenience.

If the gov't spends more money on transit it should be increasing the frequency of service not reducing fares. Reducing fares just puts more cash into the pockets of peope who already take transit.

[cybercoma]

Yes it needs to be free, and paid for by our taxes.  We are moving in that direction.

That way it will encourage people to get rid of some of their cars, and substantially reduce pollution. There were 500 premature deaths in Ontario alone this year because of their smog.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

and the money for free service will come from what you're trying to eliminate?

you're kidding right?

[mirror]

Hawaii Sets Caps On Wholesale Gas Prices

This is gonna turn more than a few heads.

Perhaps we need to try something like this in Canada, eh!

[mirror]

Check out the gas pump prices here. I think it's in Calgary:

Link

[August1991]

Holy Blue-Eyed Sheikhs!

I saw 136.4 per litre in Montreal tonight. Check it out.

[mirror]

The Layton New Democrats have already called for an investigation into the oil companies for price-fixing. Now if the Cons and the Bloc will climb on board we'll have enough votes for an inquiry. There are already rumours of a massive class-action suit being launched so keep your gas receipts just in case.

[August1991]

The Layton New Democrats have already called for an investigation into the oil companies for price-fixing. Now if the Cons and the Bloc will climb on board we'll have enough votes for an inquiry. There are already rumours of a massive class-action suit being launched so keep your gas receipts just in case.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Unfortunately, I can't give a link but the following is from a G&M article of 10 May 2004, "Another Conspiracy Hunt" by Mathew Ingram:

The federal Competition Bureau said recently that it is conducting yet another investigation into collusion in the gasoline business in Canada, as a result of public complaints about high prices. By now, the bureau must take the same attitude towards such complaints as the FBI does to all those calls about UFO activity in the Midwest: so, Mrs. Jenkins, you saw prices rise by exactly the same amount at the same time at dozens of stations? Yes, of course we'll look into it, ma'am. Thanks for calling.

Or perhaps the bureau uses these inquiries as a make-work project for summer students. The job would be relatively easy: they could just summarize the four other major studies the bureau has done over the past 20 years — not to mention the one the Conference Board did in 2000 — which found no evidence whatsoever of any conspiracy, collusion or price-fixing. Former Bureau commissioner Konrad von Finckenstein, now a federal court judge, told a House of Commons committee doing its own gas investigation last year that Canada has some of the lowest gas prices in the world, excluding taxes.

In all, there have been more than a dozen major inquiries into the gasoline business in Canada over the past two decades — by the federal government, various provincial governments, the Conference Board and industry analysts such as M.J. Ervin — and none have found any evidence of price-fixing. In fact, gasoline is one of the most competitive markets around, for one simple reason: prices, recorded in tenths of a cent, appear in two-metre-high numbers on signs at the corner of every street.

[cybercoma]

The Layton New Democrats have already called for an investigation into the oil companies for price-fixing. Now if the Cons and the Bloc will climb on board we'll have enough votes for an inquiry. There are already rumours of a massive class-action suit being launched so keep your gas receipts just in case.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Oh, who really cares?

Do you know how many times since I was born the government has called for "inquiries into price fixing"?

Perhaps the government should call an inquiry into their overtaxation of the stuff.

[mirror]

I would imagine the people in Montreal who are paying $1.349 a litre care.

[Cartman]

I feel sorry for the less fortunate in our society who are unable to cope with these increases. But for the rest, meh who cares? Over half of Calgary seems to drive massive vehicles that cost $60,000 + and it is not like there was no warning that this was gonna happen. Enjoy these low prices because it will only get much worse. Drive a fuel efficient vehicle. Personally, I will start whining when it hits > $4.00 litre.

I say higher fuel prices will have a good impact on society. People will start to drive smaller cars or demand more convenient public transportation, there will be less pollution, fewer cases of illnesses due to smog, we will actually begin planning higher density cities and create fewer roads. We will also make more $$ through exports. Prices on everything will rise, but we consume and waste too much anyways. Taxes or not, Liberals or not, federal government in existence or not, get used to much higher gas prices because this is only the beginning.

[August1991]

I feel sorry for the less fortunate in our society who are unable to cope with these increases.

That's a good point, Cartmen, and one I haven't heard elsewhere. We must use gasoline more carefully but the burden of that decision should not fall entirely on poor people.

Prices on everything will rise, but we consume and waste too much anyways.

Here, I disagree. I suspect you think other people "waste" because they don't choose as you do. It's subjective.

[mcqueen625]

Provincial tax

G.S.T. you can thank the Conservatives for the G.S.T.

Alberta sells most of our oil to Uncle Sam. You see in this world Uncle Sam comes first!

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Yes we can blame the Progressive Conservatives under Brian Mulroney for the GST, but let's not forget something here lyin Jean campaigned on dumping the GST, and here it is year's later, we still have a Liberal government in Ottawa, and we still have the GST. The house-of-cards built on capitalism is starting to fall apart because wages have not kept pace with price increases, and there are far more Canadians living in poverty than there has been since the Depression in the Dirty Thirties.

When people have to choose between food on their tables, and heating their homes, I would say that Canada's fiscal policy is an utter failure. The percentage of people living in poverty is the worst it's been since the Great Depression. Are we headed for another depression? I tend to think that we are, because a great many Canadian's are forced to rely on food banks and soup kitchens for sustenance. Something went terribly wrong in this country called Canada, and no political party in Canada is willing to do what needs to be done to fix the problem. My opinion is that we need to snatch control of our ecomony back from the multinational corporations, and start telling these corporations how things are going to be from now on, instead of them telling our government how things will be. This was brought home graphically yesterday when BIG OIL basically ordered the regulator in PEI to eithr raise the price of gasoline at the pumps or they would refuse to ship fuel to that Province. The regulatory body caved in and raised the price to $1.35 per litre, when they had just raised the price the day before, but that raise did not satify BIG OIL's demand for excessive profiteering.

[Toro]

Hey, good idea. Let's "snatch control of our economy" and drive even more people into poverty.

[kimmy]

I feel sorry for the less fortunate in our society who are unable to cope with these increases.

That's a good point, Cartmen, and one I haven't heard elsewhere. We must use gasoline more carefully but the burden of that decision should not fall entirely on poor people.

Like Cartman, I'm not particularly sorry for motorists either.

I'll mention that for many of us low-income urbanites, outrageous insurance costs persuaded us to get rid of our automobiles long ago. And of those who haven't, many own small, fuel-efficient vehicles, because they knew they could afford neither a big vehicle nor high gas prices. Many people drive big SUVs or pickups when they have no need for such a large vehicle (although, I recall having this discussion with caesar, who contends that an SUV is a necessity in Vancouver because giant out-of-control garbage trucks are careening about the streets, and a smaller vehicle would not be safe from the onslaught. or something.) People who chose to buy gas-guzzling vehicles have no business complaining about gas prices. People who chose to live miles out of town and commute back and forth every day have no business complaining about gas prices. These people have made choices that have been fouling my air for years, and I refused to feel sympathy for them now that their choices have come back to haunt them.

There are people who really don't have alternatives to automobiles-- rural Canadians, people who work in areas that aren't served by public transit-- but I refuse to believe that these people make up anything close to the majority of motorists.

-k

[Riverwind]

There are people who really don't have alternatives to automobiles-- rural Canadians, people who work in areas that aren't served by public transit-- but I refuse to believe that these people make up anything close to the majority of motorists.

You really need to add truck drivers into this category: our society depends on the battalions of trucks quietly shuttling goods from place to place. Many drivers are owner-operators who can't easily renogotiate contracts with customers. I would also say the same for taxi drivers which provide a essential service for any city with a significant tourism industry. I would like gov't to target tax relief for high gas prices to these groups and let the SUV owners stew in their own fumes.