B.C. Premier John Horgan says his government is “monitoring” the soaring price of gasoline, after the “summer driving season” began months early with a big jump in gasoline prices around the province.
B.C.’s April 1 carbon tax increase accounts for only a penny of additional tax on gasoline, Horgan told reporters at his weekly news conference Thursday, describing the latest record gasoline price as profit-taking by petroleum companies.
“I look at the commodity price, it’s still pretty low for a barrel of crude oil, but yet if you go to the pump, you see these unreasonable costs,” Horgan said. “It’s not about governments gouging, it’s about gas companies gouging.”
Premier @jjhorgan says #BCNDP has presided over 2-cent rise in #CarbonTax on gasoline, not the latest 12-cent jump #bcpoli #bcleg pic.twitter.com/RruDRoe3yv
— Tom Fletcher (@tomfletcherbc) April 4, 2019
Horgan also rejected a suggestion that his government’s court fight to stop the expansion of the Trans Mountain pipeline from the Edmonton area is pushing up gasoline and diesel prices. The original pipeline has alternated sending refined fuels and crude oil since it began operations in the mid-1950s, and B.C.’s Lower Mainland is also supplied with refined fuel by Washington state refineries, which take the majority of Trans Mountain’s crude volume.
Fun with pipeline data from @NEBCanada. In 2018, most of flows on @TransMtn pipeline were for export to the US. Chart courtesy of @IHSMarkitEnergy. pic.twitter.com/ilOYRzfkv4
— Kevin Birn (@KevinBirn) March 21, 2019
“The challenge is we don’t have enough supply in the marketplace,” Horgan said. “And instead of purchasing a pipeline, as the federal government did, perhaps if they wanted to get into the oil business, they should have gone into refining.”
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Prices have pushed past $1.60 per litre in Metro Vancouver, where the dedicated tax to fund TransLink buses and SkyTrain is up to 17 cents per litre on gasoline and diesel. In Greater Victoria, the transit tax is currently 5.5 cents per litre. An additional tax to fund the B.C. Transportation Financing Authority for transit in the rest of the province applies province-wide at 6.75 cents per litre.
After this week’s increase, carbon tax adds 8.89 cents to a litre of gasoline and 10.23 cents to a litre of diesel, which contains more carbon.
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