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Petition
Presented April 7, 2009
Price freeze of gasoline
in zone 11 from Lodge Bay to Cartwright
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MR. SPEAKER: The
hon. the Leader of the Opposition.
MS JONES: Thank
you, Mr. Speaker.
I rise today to present a
petition on behalf of the people in my District of
Cartwright-L’Anse au Clair. The petition is asking
government to consider lifting the freeze which is
implemented every year on petroleum products in that
area.
Mr. Speaker, Members of
the House of Assembly and the minister will be aware of
this issue simply because it has been in the media for
quite some time, especially over the course of January,
February and March this year, in which people in my
district found that they were paying extremely high
prices for petroleum products in one area whereas people
in the other area of the district were getting
deregulated breaks on prices. The concern was that these
petroleum products were being transferred or transported
from one zone to the other zone and it was the same
product that was being sold from one area to the other
area. However, if it was sold in area ten, I think it
is, Mr. Speaker, it would have been subjected to the
price regime that is in place for calculating the price
on petroleum products in the Province, in all areas of
the Province, whereas if it was in zone eleven it would
have been calculated under a different regime in which
the products are frozen for an extended period of time.
Mr. Speaker, I did
present a brief to the Public Utilities Board on this
issue, which I have here today, asking that this freeze
would be lifted. I did that in response not only to the
petitions that I received from nearly all the
communities that were effected in the region, but also
in response to the letters that I received from the
municipalities. All of the municipalities in this zone,
with the exception of one, had asked and signed on to
have the freeze lifted. They feel that in doing so it
will allow for, not just more competitive pricing but it
would be a pricing that reflects the actual cost of
delivery of petroleum products in that area.
Right now, Mr. Speaker,
if you look at the pricing of petroleum products right
across the Province, whether that would be for furnace
oil, stove oil or gasoline, what you will see is that
from one zone to the other there is usually a price
differential of only two cents to three cents or four
cents in that pricing. That accounts for the
transporting of that fuel into that particular zone;
but, when you get into districts like mine, where you
have the Labrador Straits in one area, you go
seventy-six kilometres down the road to the next
community and you find that there is a difference of up
to thirty cents and thirty-three cents a litre in the
price of gasoline, for instance. That is a huge price
difference and actually does not fall in line with the
way other prices are calculated at all on these
products.
People could easily see
that because you are transporting over gravel roads, you
are transporting in a huge zone, because if you look at
from Mary’s Harbour or Lodge Bay up to Cartwright it
is a large zone geographically, so there is a fair
amount of distance, and you would think, yes, that you
are going to pay more than the normal two cents or three
cents to transport that gasoline, stove oil, or furnace
oil, but you would not expect to pay up to thirty cents,
thirty-three cents and thirty-five cents, which has
normally been the case.
MR. SPEAKER: Order,
please!
I ask the hon. member to
conclude her remarks.
MS JONES: Yes,
I will, Mr. Speaker.
The people, through their
petition, are asking the government to lift this freeze
and that the price be regulated under the same formula
that is used in all other areas of the Province. They
feel that in doing so they would have to live with the
consequences of when prices fluctuate, but they do feel
that it would be a fairer process for them and that is
what they are petitioning today.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. |
