gas prices?

[cowman]

While watching the Toronto news last night there was this guy being interviewed in front of a gas station. The price for regular was 64.9 cents. In central Alberta it is 67.9! What kind of garbage is this? I assume it was gas from Alberta. How do the oil companies justify this little rip-off? I wonder if they get Alberta beef cheaper too?

[carebear300]

Cowman why would you be surprised the system is set up so that us serfs in the colonies(western canada) feed the lords in eastern canada. It has never been any different since the prairie provinces were created.

[dalek]

I think most of the gas east of about Sarnia is actually oil brought in from the middle East or elsewhere and refined in eastern Canada, it's cheaper to bring it in by tanker and ship western oil south than to bring it from Western Canada east. I know here (2 hours east of Toronto) all our gas comes from the east.

[dalek]

PS the same goes for heating oil, diesel etc. Natural gas and propane probably come east.

[cowman]

Or I suppose it could be Newfoundland oil?
It still surprizes me that they can import crude from Saudi Arabia, unload it, refine it, ship it to Toronto, and undercut our price by that much. I mean Alberta crude is priced on a world market and while I'm sure it is more expensive than Saudi crude, the transport costs must be pretty steep. Considering what it costs to get a bushel of barley just into export position(around $1) how much would it cost to move a barrel of crude from Saudi Arabia?
Or is the Alberta price just a case of the companies getting all the market will bear? Maybe in Toronto people just won't pay more than a certain level?
Dalek: Do you get a deal on farm fuel? Do you have dyed gas and diesel? We get 10 cents off the regular price for dyed gasoline.

[dalek]

I don't think it costs that much per gallon when you consider how many gallons they can put on a supertanker these days compared to having to bring it east from Alberta either by rail in smaller tanker cars or by truck. Cheaper to stick it in a pipeline south or whatever. Besides, isn't Californication closer to Alberta than most of Eastern Canada or at least as close?
We have dyed diesel here but it doesn't tend to be all that much cheaper. Plus most farmers around here just seem to assume that their best deal on fuel is from the co-op (we did too until we priced around for a few months and found they were always 8-10 cents a litre higher than the competition for bulk dyed diesel). It actually seems to be fairly common anymore to drive past a gas station and see road diesel priced higher than gas, which just changed about a year ago.

[dalek]

Never heard of dyed gasoline, only diesel.

[cowman]

In Alberta we have both dyed gasoline and diesel. Dyed gasoline is 10 cents cheaper than gas at the pumps. This 10 cents is the road tax. It is a provincial tax designed to build and maintain roads.
In my local weekly the MP has a column that dealt with gasoline taxes. The federal government collected $4.8 billion in 2001 on gasoline taxes. They returned $113 million to the provinces(2.4%) for roads! After all the infrastructure programs by the federal government the total costs were 20% of the $4.8 billion. Which leaves them with about $3.85 billion in spare change!
Now in Alberta the roads are pretty good but I hear they are atrocious in Saskatchewan. Our municipalities struggle with funding as our government has cut back on giving them infrastructure money.

[carebear300]

Trust me cowman the roads aren't good!!!! You remember that clip on CNN that they used to show every time after the war started over there about their one paved road. THat road that hadn't been properly maintained for years and had been in the midst of a war for years looked very similar to our highway. Although they are taking better care of our highways for the most part now.