Elston’s above cartoon is right on the money (pardon the pun).
We may be starting to sound a bit preachy, as the Eagle has pointed this matter out once or twice, but it’s difficult to ignore how Canadians continue to get robbed at the gas pumps while the price of oil is now at a six-year low.
The numbers don’t lie, and Canadians need to start asking the right people why we are paying such horrendous prices for fuel when we most certainly should not be.
Some reports have pointed to ‘refinery troubles’ as the reason motorists in Canada and the U.S. have been gouged at the pumps for so long. ‘Refinery troubles’ can mean so many things, most if not all of which are complete nonsense and nothing more than an excuse to jack up the cost of gasoline. We look forward to seeing the price of gas plummet once the ‘troubles’ have been rectified.
The current numbers are telling:
- In Cochrane, the current (Aug. 17) price for a litre of gas is $1.19.
- The current price for a barrel of oil is $47.87.
- The price for a litre of gas in Cochrane in June 2014 was $1.24.
- The price for a barrel of oil in June 2014 was $115.
The breakdown:
- The price of crude has fallen by 64 per cent since June 2014.
- The price at the pumps has fallen by four per cent since June 2014.
Some of you reading this are saying, “Sure, but what about the fall of the Canadian dollar?”
Let’s look at that as well.
The Canadian dollar has dropped 17 per cent since June 2014. It has gone from being equivalent to .92 cents to the U.S. dollar just over a year ago to .76 cents today.
A 17 per cent drop in our dollar’s worth does not justify gas only going down by four per cent when oil has plunged by 64 per cent.
If you compare what we pay to what they pay south of the border, the numbers don’t make it look any better.
The median price for a gallon of gas in the U.S. right now is $2.56.
If you were to make the conversions (litres to gallons, the Canadian dollar to the U.S. dollar) to get a clearer comparison of gas prices in North America, it would look something like this:
- With approximately 3.8 litres in one U.S. gallon, Canadians would pay $4.52 CAD for one gallon of gas, the U.S. currency equivalent of $3.45, an .89-cent increase even after factoring in the drop in the Canadian dollar.
The price of oil goes far beyond Canada and the U.S. Countries in Europe have long been paying astronomical costs for fuel, something most North Americans take for granted.
Take this into consideration: According the BBC, the average price for a litre of gas in the U.K. this past July was 1.16 pounds, or $2.37 CAD, or (even more scary) $9.01 CAD for one gallon.
So, compared to driving in the U.K., Canadians, and especially Americans, have it pretty good and cheap.
This does not, however, take away from the fact that what we have been paying historically does not add up to what we are paying now.
Is there an end in sight to crude oil, either due to diminishing resources or political pressure, that only energy companies can see, and they are looking to cash in before the kegs in the ground are tapped dry? Or is this simply oil and gas companies pulling the wool over our eyes and making up excuse after excuse to charge us unreasonable prices at the pump?
Despite the high cost of fuel in European countries and the inexplicably inflated price Canadians are currently seeing, here are a few gas prices in our currency to make you envious:
Venezuela - .03 cents/litre
Saudi Arabia - .21 cents/litre
Kuwait - .28 cents/litre
Iran - .43 cents/litre
Russia - .75 cents/litre
What’s truly odd about this list is that all of these countries with low fuel costs also have the most proven oil reserves; in fact, each one is in the Top 8 worldwide.
Canada, however, pays much more for fuel ($1.19/litre), but has the third most oil reserves in the world, with an estimated 172 billion barrels.
Canadians undoubtedly use their fair share of oil. On a per capita basis, we use about .064 of a barrel each per day, while Americans, who often get criticized for their fuel consumption, each use .059 of a barrel every day.
