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Soaring Gasoline Prices Greet Motorists for Second Day in a Row

Posted on: Thursday, 1 September 2005, 12:00 CDT

TORONTO (CP) - Drivers in Canada's largest city got a brief respite from soaring retail gasoline prices late Wednesday, but they awoke Thursday to another shock at the pumps.

One gas station in downtown Toronto was charging $1.26 a litre Thursday morning. Similar prices were charged early Wednesday in Toronto before falling to just over the $1 mark at some stations later in the day.

Prices were high in other parts of the country after - in some cases - jumping by as much as 20 cents a litre on Wednesday. In Saint John, N.B., and Dartmouth, N.S., gas was in the $1.29 a litre range. In Montreal, the pump price at some stations was $1.35 a litre while in Edmonton it was $1.15 a litre.

Most analysts have blamed the jump in retail gas prices on the surge in wholesale prices in the United States, where numerous refineries in the South have been shut down by the hurricane and a supply shortage looms ahead of the Labour Day weekend, when millions of drivers hit the road and gasoline demand surges.

As well, oil production in the Gulf has been disrupted by the hurricane and it could take weeks before rigs begin operating normally.

One senior economist said gasoline prices in Canada have also gone up quickly because in a global market, the supply shortages in the United States have also created a sudden surge in demand for Canadian crude for U.S. refineries normally supplied by Gulf oil.

But one Toronto-area Liberal MP said government should look at legislation "to make sure there's more competition in the industry."

"Canadian refiners have far too much control and it's time to break up the monopoly that exists at the refinery level," said Dan McTeague.

McTeague also said he would examine federal laws relating to profiteering, charging that the oil industry has "decided to take advantage of a very desperate situation."

Source: Canadian Press

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