Gasoline costs in the Vancouver region have decreased since the spring, when prices at the pump hit an eye-popping $1.70 per litre, but they haven’t quite come down to earth. Gas prices in Vancouver are about $1.50 this week, compared with less than $1.10 in Calgary and about $1.20 in Toronto, according to the website GasBuddy.ca.
B.C. Premier John Horgan promised to get to the bottom of why gas prices in the province seem so out of whack compared with elsewhere in Canada, asking the B.C. Utilities Commission in the spring to conduct a formal investigation into the issue. Theories have abounded, from allegations of price gouging to claims that the province’s opposition to the Trans Mountain pipeline expansion is keeping costs high.
After months of work that has yielded two preliminary reports, public hearings begin today in Vancouver. This week’s hearings are being advertised as an “oral workshop” that will see interveners present evidence and field questions from an expert panel.
The oil companies have already signalled that they won’t be entirely forthcoming in terms of how much they’re marking up prices, arguing that profit-margin data is “commercially sensitive.” The commission could seek a court order but that would be time consuming. At any rate, Mr. Horgan says the dispute over profit data doesn’t make the oil companies look good.
The other potential problem is that the utilities commission isn’t empowered to examine the effect government policy, which critics have said leaves out a potential major factor in determining the final gas price charged to consumers.
It’s also not clear what the government will be able to do with the final report, since prices themselves are largely unregulated except for in Quebec and the Atlantic provinces.
