It’s of little surprise to hardly anyone in this province who runs a vehicle that gas regulation may be unnecessarily lifting money from their pockets.
There has been grumbling about it since the government program’s inception. The Nova Scotia think tank, Atlantic Institute for Market Studies, released a report last week which claims to show drivers in this province paid about $65 million too much for gasoline because our petroleum market is regulated.
All those people who have been screaming that we pay too much for gas seem to be vindicated by the results.
The provincial government regulators made clear from the beginning they weren’t in the business of keeping the price of petroleum products lower than under the non-regulated system; they told anyone who would listen they were charged with keeping the violent highs and lows from negatively impacting consumers.
That might be what was promised, but if the AIMS researchers are correct and there are those who disagree, consumers in this province have been paying dearly for simply getting peaks and valleys taken out of gas pricing.
No system is perfect, but having an extra $65 million going into the pockets of big oil companies is unacceptable.
If there is a grey area in pricing, it should come done on the side that benefits the taxpayers of this province.
Now that the regulator has this information, it can correct any shortcomings. It’s not like they haven’t changed their processes before. Gas regulation was, and is, meant to protect the people of this province from gouging.
According to this study, we’ve had money taken from our pockets while we thought we were being protected by the law of the land.
After this long, it’s time the kinks were worked out of the system.
