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OTTAWA—Canadians have been paying too much for gas for nearly two years, says an analysis released today by the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives.
The analysis, by economist and CCPA research associate Hugh Mackenzie, calculates how much Canadians should be paying for gas and finds that since August 2005 prices have consistently exceeded levels that would be justified on the basis of costs and normal profit margins.
“For example, drivers in Toronto are currently being overcharged 15 cents per litre,” Mackenzie says.
The situation is the same across the country: in Halifax drivers are currently overpaying 19 cents per litre; 21 cents per litre in Winnipeg; 18 cents per litre in Edmonton; and a whopping 27 cents per litre in Vancouver.
“And every penny per litre generates an additional $1 million for the oil and gas industry every day from gasoline sales alone,” says Mackenzie.
In order to help Canadians know what they should be paying for gas, the CCPA has developed an online gasoline price gouge meter based on Mackenzie’s calculationss.
Users simply type in the retail price they are paying and select the closest city from the list of cities on the site. The meter does all the calculations, estimates how much gas should cost, and lets users know how much they’re being overcharged.
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