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GUEST COLUMN - NDP
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SURREY CAMPAIGN AGAINST HIGH GAS PRICES IS REVVING UP |
By BRUCE RALSTON, MLA for Surrey-Whalley and NDP Official Opposition Finance Critic |
Earlier this month when CKNW launched a campaign to fight rising gas prices, the phone lines were jammed with callers speaking out about high prices at the pumps. Throughout the province, residents took the opportunity to talk about the effects that rising gas prices were having on them.
Nowhere are these effects felt more acutely than in Surrey, where transit has not been able to keep up with our rapidly growing city. For residents, the lack of safe, reliable and affordable transit has forced many of us to keep to our cars when transit lets us down.
It seems like we are getting gouged every time we pull up to the pump. Yet, the reasons given for high prices defy common sense. At a time when large oil companies are raking in record profits, we see no relief at the gas station.
Motorists in B.C. pay more for their gas than any other major metropolitan area outside Newfoundland and Nova Scotia. Indeed, gas prices in Greater Vancouver have risen by an average of 6.7 cents last year, reaching 103.7 cents a litre in 2006.
A recent Ipsos Reid survey found that more than 80% of Greater Vancouver residents did not believe the rationale given by oil companies for the hiking of gas prices. They believe instead that they are being gouged at the pump.
A couple weeks ago, I joined with members of the community to talk about the exorbitant cost of gas during a live CKNW broadcast in Surrey. Last week, the Surrey Board of Trade joined the fight against high gas prices and encouraged residents to sign the CKNW petition that calls on the government to protect consumers from unfair price increases.
The NDP caucus takes this issue seriously. My colleague, the NDP Energy Critic John Horgan, has tabled a private member's bill in the B.C. Legislature, the Retail Petroleum Consumer Protection Act, which would protect consumers from wildly fluctuating gasoline prices. We hope that the B.C. Liberals will vote in favour of this bill and provide relief to the impacted citizens.
Currently, I am in the process of collecting signatures for the CKNW petition at my office and plan to present them in the legislature this spring when the vote will be held. So far, the government has shown a lacke of political will to look into gouging at the pump. I think that together we can change their mind.
Please stop by my office to sign the petition and lend your voice to Surrey's fight.
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