Can't Find Gas For Your Car Or.....

.....when you do find some are pissed off at the price? The premier says not to get upset and his Energy Minister doesn't seem too concerned either. I will bet you neither of their chauffeured driven limos is running on empty.

Premier full of hot air on gas
By GEOFF MATTHEWS
March 1, 2007

REMEMBER WAY BACK - oh, maybe a week and a half ago -- when the price we paid for gas at the pumps fluctuated every day?

On the drive to work in the morning, the price for a litre of regular fuel may have been in the 92.9cents range.

By mid-afternoon the pump price had receded, perhaps to 89cents, and at 10 p.m. it might have been down a full dime from the morning at 82.9cents a litre.

Just market forces at work, we were assured by the gas companies and the government. No collusion, despite the fact that prices rose and fell in unison at stations carrying every different banner on the market.

Wouldn't you like to see those good old days back again?

Don't hold your breath. Now we're in a gas shortage and the price you see on the overhead signs in the morning might as well be glued in place.

Still market forces in play, I guess. It's just that when four out of 10 Esso stations are running on empty and a few competitors have pumped their last litres, the basic demand-supply equation goes out of whack.

Ontario's gas shortage started with a Feb. 15 fire at an Imperial Oil refinery in Nanticoke and was exacerbated by a strike at CN Rail.

Maybe we should just give thanks that the stations that do have fuel aren't jacking up their prices to the $2-$3 range to take advantage of the situation.

But somehow I suspect the average Ontario motorist won't see it that way.

We'll be miffed once again that we're being held hostage by an industry that grows fat on profits without any regard to how it's hurting the rest of us but there won't be a darned thing we can do about it.

Meanwhile you can bet there won't be a tear in the oil company boardrooms for the taxi driver who has seen his already modest profit margin further eroded.

Or for the independent trucker who can't simply decide to cut back his mileage to reduce his costs.

Delivery van operators, pizza delivery people, couriers -- the list goes on and on. When gas prices rise it means real pain for a bunch of consumers who have no option but to use their vehicles.

If you're the leader of all Ontarians, however, shortages and high prices are viewed from a loftier perch.

Premier Dalton McGuinty yesterday urged Ontario motorists not to let their frustration with a gasoline shortage grow into anger as they search for a station with fuel to sell. It's an inconvenience that affects everyone, opined the premier and isn't worth getting upset about.

Oh really? Wonder if that's how they felt last week up in Elliot Lake when the town's only gas bar went empty. Or in dozens of other communities where there's only one station in town.

Energy Minister Dwight Duncan was even more blunt, asking: "So? Did everyone get gas? So what?"

Brave words from people who I suspect seldom have to worry about shopping for their own gas. Who don't have to drive from block to block (or in rural areas from town to town) in search of fuel.

For we mere mortals the shortages and soaring prices are a nightmare -- the sort of situation we associate with Third World countries, not Canada's heartland.

And I suspect, Mr. Premier, despite your soothing words, a whole lot of Ontarians are upset about that.