Same theme as previous applies for this story!
My reactions when discovering - or rather, in glorious vindication of my theories held for decades and alarmingly exemplified by Québec gas prices, reaffirming - that gas prices are the product of evil collusive forces after all!
This anti-competitive behaviour undermines consumer confidence and hurts the economy which, unfortunately, is still being held rather tightly by the reproductive organs by our unquenchable thirst for petroleum.
That criminal charges are being laid is quite satisfying, and remarkable too, given the burden on the Crown to garner proof beyond reasonable doubt that collusion was taking place.
Then again, upon second thought, what is remarkable is that it took this long to collect sufficient conclusive proof that collusion was taking place. I always found it curious that gas prices in Sherbrooke, where I have been studying for two years, were always the same everywhere in town and, until now, had always attributed this phenomenon to some sort of price-fixing québécois legislation. In Ottawa, it's quite the opposite phenomenon at play - from one street corner to the next, the price can vary sometimes as much as five to ten cents, though lately I've seen less of that.
I hope consumers will remain vigilant in denouncing unnecessarily high gas prices and that our various levels of government will act positively in counteracting any criminal activity. Obiter dictum, I support Stéphane Dion's carbon moderation policies, and anyone who believes prices will be adversely affected can look instead at the real criminal factor at play behind high gas prices, from the occasional "bad apple" retailer right up to big oil and the international cartels. The principles of free market supply and demand seem to have been shoved right off the rails in the market of gasoline, and while this is a deplorable situation, it should not by any means serve as a justification for holding up any initiative to mitigating our society's reliance on petroleum and, correlatively, to motivate the development of more stringent regulations on gasoline quality and vehicle emissions.
This anti-competitive behaviour undermines consumer confidence and hurts the economy which, unfortunately, is still being held rather tightly by the reproductive organs by our unquenchable thirst for petroleum.
That criminal charges are being laid is quite satisfying, and remarkable too, given the burden on the Crown to garner proof beyond reasonable doubt that collusion was taking place.
Then again, upon second thought, what is remarkable is that it took this long to collect sufficient conclusive proof that collusion was taking place. I always found it curious that gas prices in Sherbrooke, where I have been studying for two years, were always the same everywhere in town and, until now, had always attributed this phenomenon to some sort of price-fixing québécois legislation. In Ottawa, it's quite the opposite phenomenon at play - from one street corner to the next, the price can vary sometimes as much as five to ten cents, though lately I've seen less of that.
I hope consumers will remain vigilant in denouncing unnecessarily high gas prices and that our various levels of government will act positively in counteracting any criminal activity. Obiter dictum, I support Stéphane Dion's carbon moderation policies, and anyone who believes prices will be adversely affected can look instead at the real criminal factor at play behind high gas prices, from the occasional "bad apple" retailer right up to big oil and the international cartels. The principles of free market supply and demand seem to have been shoved right off the rails in the market of gasoline, and while this is a deplorable situation, it should not by any means serve as a justification for holding up any initiative to mitigating our society's reliance on petroleum and, correlatively, to motivate the development of more stringent regulations on gasoline quality and vehicle emissions.
posted by Bronson Borst at 4:47 PM
3 Comments:
This comment has been removed by the author.
This comment has been removed by the author.
I'm going to reserve my elation until a conviction is registered here. But even then, I think that we have only hooked a comparative guppy, compared to some of the sharks that have been chomping on consumers.
Post a Comment
<< Home