NDP MPP Gilles Bisson says Dalton McGuinty must regulate gasoline prices to protect Ontario consumers from the kind of gas price rip-offs drivers are experiencing at the pumps today.

“People work hard for their paychecks and they get really angry when the price suddenly shoots up 10 cents or more for no good reason. Ontario is the only jurisdiction east of Manitoba that has done nothing to protect its drivers from unscrupulous oil companies that care only about maximizing their profits,” Bisson said.

Bisson was reacting to a sudden price spike that threatens to send prices above a dollar a litre throughout the province. Already, price watchers are spotting scattered prices above the dollar threshold in Northern Ontario with some Toronto area outlets not too far behind. A recent blaze at an Imperial Oil refinery in Nanticoke resulted in gasoline shortages at 75 of the company’s 400 gas stations. Many stations in Ontario have simply stopped selling gasoline until supply problems are fixed. However, reports indicate stations completely unaffected by the shortages are raising prices.

“People just don’t understand why the same gas that’s in the ground one day, is five or even ten cents/litre more the next day”, Bisson said. “While working families struggle longer and harder to make ends meet, gas and oil companies are rewarding themselves with record-setting profits.”
While Energy Minister Dwight Duncan said that Ontario has no power to protect consumers, the fact that five other provinces have already passed gas price regulation legislation to stop these kinds of rip-offs shows that Duncan is wrong, Bisson said.

“The McGuinty Liberals are sitting idle while big oil companies are ripping-off Ontario drivers by jacking up prices because they can - not because it’s justified. It’s clear that Dalton McGuinty is out of touch with Ontarians and taking the side of the big oil companies, not the side of Ontario motorists," Bisson said.