First posted: Tuesday, May 10, 2011 5:27:56 EDT PM
Toronto Sun
With gas prices Tuesday at their highest level ever in Toronto and many parts of Canada, let’s dispense with the myth governments are powerless to act.
First, the facts.
On Tuesday, the cost of a litre of regular, unleaded gas in Toronto rose 6.5¢ to a record at above $1.39, with oil around $100-per-barrel. The previous record was $1.37 in 2008, when oil was $140-per-barrel.
Thus, this latest spike has little to do with the price of oil. Further, just a year ago, the cost of gas was 96.3¢-a-litre.
This mean’s today’s rapidly rising gas prices are having a devastating impact on family budgets, over a very short time.
Here are three things Ottawa and Queen’s Park can do right now.
First, lower gas taxes, which account for up to 40% of the pump price. Start by ending the punitive “tax-on-a-tax” provisions built into gas prices.
Politicians have argued if they lower gas taxes, the oil companies will jack up their prices in unison by the same amount to pocket the difference.
That’s why the second thing the feds must do is amend Canada’s price-fixing legislation to give it teeth. The Competition Bureau has investigated Big Oil numerous times over the years and, except for some minor, regional prosecutions, cleared it of price-fixing repeatedly.
This is absurd, given that oil companies fix prices in a practical sense, as far as the impact on their customers is concerned, if not in a way that meets the legal definition of criminal price-fixing.
Parliament must therefore change the law so it affords consumers protection from the price-gouging which occurs when oil companies jack up gas prices in unison.
Since this obviously isn’t a crime under our existing laws, the laws must be changed, with serious penalties, including prison time, for violations.
Finally, with oil at $100-a-barrel, it’s absurd to continue tax breaks to the oil sector started years ago, when oil prices were low, to stimulate investment in the oilsands.
PM Stephen Harper has said he will phase out a $300-million-a-year tax break to the oil industry known as the Accelerated Capital Cost Allowance, between now and 2015. Too slow. End it now.
It’s past time to end the hosing of taxpayers, at both ends, by Big Oil and Big Government.
Toronto Sun
With gas prices Tuesday at their highest level ever in Toronto and many parts of Canada, let’s dispense with the myth governments are powerless to act.
First, the facts.
On Tuesday, the cost of a litre of regular, unleaded gas in Toronto rose 6.5¢ to a record at above $1.39, with oil around $100-per-barrel. The previous record was $1.37 in 2008, when oil was $140-per-barrel.
Thus, this latest spike has little to do with the price of oil. Further, just a year ago, the cost of gas was 96.3¢-a-litre.
This mean’s today’s rapidly rising gas prices are having a devastating impact on family budgets, over a very short time.
Here are three things Ottawa and Queen’s Park can do right now.
First, lower gas taxes, which account for up to 40% of the pump price. Start by ending the punitive “tax-on-a-tax” provisions built into gas prices.
Politicians have argued if they lower gas taxes, the oil companies will jack up their prices in unison by the same amount to pocket the difference.
That’s why the second thing the feds must do is amend Canada’s price-fixing legislation to give it teeth. The Competition Bureau has investigated Big Oil numerous times over the years and, except for some minor, regional prosecutions, cleared it of price-fixing repeatedly.
This is absurd, given that oil companies fix prices in a practical sense, as far as the impact on their customers is concerned, if not in a way that meets the legal definition of criminal price-fixing.
Parliament must therefore change the law so it affords consumers protection from the price-gouging which occurs when oil companies jack up gas prices in unison.
Since this obviously isn’t a crime under our existing laws, the laws must be changed, with serious penalties, including prison time, for violations.
Finally, with oil at $100-a-barrel, it’s absurd to continue tax breaks to the oil sector started years ago, when oil prices were low, to stimulate investment in the oilsands.
PM Stephen Harper has said he will phase out a $300-million-a-year tax break to the oil industry known as the Accelerated Capital Cost Allowance, between now and 2015. Too slow. End it now.
It’s past time to end the hosing of taxpayers, at both ends, by Big Oil and Big Government.
