The provincial NDP is looking once again to regulate the price of gasoline.
A proposed private members bill from Timmins MPP Gilles Bisson would give the Ontario Energy Board power to set prices.
Bisson says it doesn’t make sense there is such a wide swing in prices across Ontario.
“If you can buy a case of beer in Cornwall and pay the same price in Kenora, if we can pay the people that produce milk the same price across Ontario, and that we regulate natural gas and we regulate electricity, certainly we’re able to do something about the price of gas,” says Bisson.
He stresses the set-up doesn’t make sense and the public understands that gas companies are taking advantage of the market.
Bisson says under his bill the price of gas would be set each week.
“Every Monday, the Ontario Energy Board would set the price of gas, retail, based on the rack price of oil as it hits the port of New York.”
This is the third time this bill has been introduced.
The last time was in 2017.
NDP Leader Andrea Horwath is prepared to make it an election issue if it doesn’t pass.
“Liberals and the Conservatives don’t believe government has any role in this regard but we believe that making things fair, protecting consumers, standing up to big oil and gas companies who are gouging consumers is something that can be done and should be done,” says Horwath.
The Competition Bureau found no evidence of price fixing four years ago in response to a request from Kenora-Rainy River MPP Greg Rickford.
Gas prices have gone up a minimum of 10 cents a litre across northwestern Ontario.
The price at the pump in Dryden at most locations is 164.9.
Red Lake motorists are being asked to pay 178.9, while the price in Sioux Lookout ranges from 168.7 to 176.7.
(With files from Tim Davidson and Randy Thoms)
