North American Fuel Boycotting Coalition (NAFBC) is officially formed on www.gasboycotts.com
Taking action on gas prices
Local man promotes monthly gas protests
By Jillian Follert of the Oshawa This Week (Friday June 13, 2008)
OSHAWA – Brenden Nevills is not alone in his contempt for skyrocketing gas prices. But instead of joining the chorus of complaints, the Oshawa man is trying to change the situation. He recently founded the organization GasMizer, a website and blog dedicated to raising awareness of high gas prices and inspiring fellow consumers to take action. He is working with the founders of Hamilton-based website boycottgas.ca to promote monthly protests of major gas retailers and protests to raise public awareness.
“We would like them to realize that they can’t continue to gouge us, it’s going to start to erode the middle and lower class,” he said. While everyone is encouraged to take part in the protests, Mr. Nevills is specifically reaching out to Canadian Auto Workers (CAW) union members, in light of this week’s announcement that Oshawa’s truck plant will be closed in 2009.
“High gas prices had a lot to do with the truck plant closure, they are eating away at the market for trucks,” he said. Esso offers information on their website and attributes recent spikes to several factors including high demand for gas and high crude oil prices as the result of instability in the Middle East and demand from developing countries like China.
Esso said Canadian gas prices, on average, are lower than those in the U.S. and among the lowest in the industrialized world, noting that more than 20 Canadian government inquiries have concluded that the industry is competitive.
For Mr. Nevills, global factors don’t change the fact average families are struggling.
“I commute to work everyday from Oshawa to Toronto and I see the prices go up on Fridays and go down on Mondays. I’m sick of it,” said the 30-year old husband and father of three. “People do have to buy gas to get where they need to go but I’m just asking that they be more conscientious about where they buy it,”
For more information and to find out which retailer will be targeted in July, visit www.gasmizer.synthasite.com
Common Cents
By Linda Leatherdale of Sun Media (May 22, 2008)
Some call it stagflation. Others super inflation.
No matter -- it's an economic killer and central bankers' worst nightmare. And it's rearing its ugly head not just in the recession-riddled United States, but Great Britain and now Canada.
An April inflation rate of 1.7%, up from 1.4% in March, seems hardly something to worry about. But the hike, driven by skyrocketing energy prices, took analysts by surprise and with oil hitting yet another record high yesterday, fear is growing this is just the beginning of an uncontrollable spike in the cost of living.
And these gas prices are uncontrollable. Today you awake to new fleecing with prices in the GTA up another 1.3 cents to $1.273 a litre for self-serve regular, while diesel jumped 2.7 cents to $1.414.
That's after oil zoomed close to $114 US a barrel yesterday -- while analysts now predict the black gold to hit $200 US in a matter of years.
Stagflation, by the way, is when prices rise rapidly while the economy suffers a major meltdown. It can force wage and price controls, as workers demand more money to cover the rising cost of living. And it can spark higher interest rates -- which flies in the face of a current policy by central bankers to cut interest rates in a desperate attempt to put the brakes on an economic slowdown caused by the U.S. subprime crisis.
According to latest consumer price numbers, released yesterday by Statistics Canada, the biggest price spikes are in necessities for many people -- like home heating fuel, up 36.9% and gas prices at the pumps, up 11.6%.
Analysts are quick to point out our soaring loonie, which yesterday closed at $1.0162, kept a lid on gouging pump prices, which jumped 21% south of the border.
Why then do we pay more than our American cousins? Tax, pure tax.
But Prime Minister Stephen Harper, who once promised to axe the GST, a tax on tax at the pumps, if prices hit over 85 cents, still refuses to give us any relief.Yesterday, Harper said the ability to affect the price of gasoline is so small, it's not worth doing.
"He (Harper) should listen to the people, this could be a big election issue," said Brenden Nevills, who's spearheading a protest campaign called Gas Mizer (gasmizer.spaces.live.com or boycottgas.ca). The campaign calls for boycotts of gas stations plus a rollback of high gas taxes. This month, the boycott target is Petro-Canada.
Radio talk show host Roy Green of the Corus Network, along with myself, Canadian Federation of Independent Business, the Canadian Taxpayers Federation, and Ron Foxcroft, owner of Fluke Transport, are demanding a 50% cut in high gas taxes, plus axing the GST.
Meanwhile, the cost of maintaining a home jumped 4.6% in April, and mortgage interest costs were up 8.7%, mainly because home prices continued to head higher, despite a slowdown in sales. And the cost of bakery goods took a big leap, up 10.4%, the steepest rise since 1981.
Analysts warns if high gas prices persist -- and Harper says his belief is they will -- expect the cost of all food and other necessities of life to head even higher.
Also, a warning: The days of lower borrowing costs may be over, while the credit crunch is already here.
Now is not the time to carry debt.
