I drive from Nelson to Vancouver quite often, and continually find it amazing to compare local (extravagant) gas prices with those along Highway 3 and in Vancouver.
This past weekend I left the $1.30 per litre prices locally, despite plunging world prices for a barrel of oil, to find gas being sold for $1.11 in Hope and in the $1.13 to $1.15 range in Vancouver.
Keeping in mind that Vancouver has a five cent per litre surcharge on its gas to pay for public transit, one has to wonder at the price gouging here in Nelson, where we are being systematically ripped off for anywhere from 15 to 19 cents per litre.
I contacted my local MP to find out more about this anomaly, but he had no answers to my questions. Interesting that the oil industry is among the most heavily-subsidized by taxpayers in our country, yet our government representative would have no comment or opinion about the egregious gas prices we are facing in Nelson every day.
We are constantly told that local prices are dictated by the world price of a barrel of oil, yet while that world price has dropped by more than half, we have a decrease of only a few cents locally. Someone is making outrageous profits at the expense of Nelson car owners.
Patrick O’Neil
Nelson
