B.C. Premier John Horgan says his government is 鈥渕onitoring鈥� the soaring price of gasoline, after the 鈥渟ummer driving season鈥� began months early with a big jump in gasoline prices around the province.
B.C.鈥檚 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.
鈥淚 look at the commodity price, it鈥檚 still pretty low for a barrel of crude oil, but yet if you go to the pump, you see these unreasonable costs,鈥� Horgan said. 鈥淚t鈥檚 not about governments gouging, it鈥檚 about gas companies gouging.鈥�
Premier says has presided over 2-cent rise in on gasoline, not the latest 12-cent jump
鈥� Tom Fletcher (@tomfletcherbc)
Horgan also rejected a suggestion that his government鈥檚 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.鈥檚 Lower Mainland is also supplied with refined fuel by Washington state refineries, which take the majority of Trans Mountain鈥檚 crude volume.
Fun with pipeline data from . In 2018, most of flows on pipeline were for export to the US. Chart courtesy of .
鈥� Kevin Birn (@KevinBirn)
鈥淭he challenge is we don鈥檛 have enough supply in the marketplace,鈥� Horgan said. 鈥淎nd 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.鈥�
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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鈥檚 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.
tfletcher@blackpress.ca
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