Locals are taking their concern about the price of gas in Merritt to the Competition Bureau.
Members of the group Merrittonians Against Gas Price Fixing and a constituent on behalf of member of Parliament Dan Albas have submitted their complaints and are leaving it up to the bureau to decide if it will investigate.
All investigations by the Competition Bureau are conducted privately. If it sees fit, the bureau files an application with the independent Competition Tribunal. The tribunal is a specialized court that deals with complex issues involving business and industry including mergers, misleading advertising and restrictive trade practices.
Albas said a Chevron representative told him four basic inputs factor into the price of gas at the pump: taxes, crude prices, refinery costs and local competition. Albas said the refinery’s energy security supply and local competition are the things that most concern him on the issue. From a provincial perspective, he said companies have to source their fuel from out-of-province refineries when there isn’t a stable supply of oil going to the Burnaby refinery, which could be impacting the price at the pump.
He said getting a stable supply to the province’s refinery is a broad and complex issue he’s looking at.
Albas said his other main concern is making sure people aren’t being unfairly charged. Members of the group Merrittonians Against Gas Price Fixing held protests over the winter calling for companies to align Merritt’s prices with Kamloops’, but Albas said that may not be achievable, given the complex way prices are determined in different markets.
“It seems to be fairly plausible that Kamloops has [low prices] because they do have a bona-fide amount of competition. Kamloops actually has some of the lowest prices in the province,” he said.
A Chevron spokesperson told the Herald during the protests in November that Kamloops’ market is “extremely competitive” and that the price at the pump comes from the company’s head office, not the local station operator. Other local gas stations appear to also have their prices set by their corporations’ head offices.
“It’s tough to have quick, on-the-ground competition if you have to go to head office,” Albas said.
