“They’re doing it because they can,” says economist Marc Lee, who recommends the B.C. government step in.
Alberta’s oil industry is raking in “excess profits” by price-gouging B.C. customers, according to a new report by the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives.
Suncor, Parkland Fuel and Imperial Oil, refiners that were specifically named by Lee, referred Postmedia News to the Canadian Fuels Association, an industry group to which all companies belong. Shell didn’t respond to a request for comment. Related Lee’s report examined the 55-cents-per-litre increase in pump prices that Vancouver residents have seen since April 2016. Of that figure, 6.3 cents could be attributed to tax increases, Lee found. Another 2.6 cents went to gas stations. The increased price of crude oil, which hits drivers across Canada similarly, accounted for another 28 cents. The rest, about 18 cents, came from increased refining margins, the report states.
Lee’s work relied on data from the Kent Group, a company that incidentally also produced a recent market analysis that the fuels association referred to in its response to Postmedia. That report included a similar explanation for high prices in Vancouver to the one offered by the association. But it also said it’s “less than clear” whether increased Trans Mountain pipeline capacity would relieve prices in Vancouver.
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