NDP MPP Gilles Bisson wants to know why Dalton McGuinty continues to allow big oil companies to gouge Ontario drivers.

“Hurricane Ike is no excuse for a 13-cent overnight gas hike. Ontario drivers know there is something wrong when they are forced to pay huge price increases. It’s about time the premier stood up for drivers, and did something to stop these gas-price rip-offs,” said Bisson, who serves as the NDP’s Transportation Critic.

The 13-cent per litre increase – and more outside the Greater Toronto Area – is one of the highest one-time price hikes in recent memory.

New Democrats long advocated for a fair deal for consumers that would restore their confidence and save them money with a system of gas price regulation that reduces price volatility and eliminates opportunistic price gouging by the big oil companies. The Ontario Energy Board, which already regulates natural gas and electricity prices, would set prices for gasoline every two weeks based on global oil prices, fair transportation costs and a reasonable profit.

“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. “People work hard for their pay checks and are angry when the price suddenly shoots up 13 cents per litre for gas that’s already in a storage tank.”

While the McGuinty government has said that the provincial government has no power to protect consumers, the fact that five other provincial governments have already passed gas price regulation legislation to stop the rip-offs shows that he is wrong, Bisson says.

“The government of tiny PEI is willing to take on the big oil companies and protect its drivers, but the McGuinty Liberals do not have the political guts to do the same,” said Bisson.