Gas Prices up to $1.43.9 a liter in Winnipeg, and we thought it would go down
By suspenseful
@suspenseful (40193)
Canada
September 13, 2008 8:02pm CST
We went to Canada Tire to pay a bill and because there was an introductory price on large non stick casserole/frying pans, and we were just driving into the parking lot, and I thought I saw the price on the Gas station as $1.43.9 a liter and I said that cannot be right. After all, labor day is over, and we are not in the States and we get our own gasoline. Alberta is just a province over and even Saskatchewan has its own gas so why is our gas price gone up? We are not getting it from the Gulf of Mexico and the storms are not affecting us. But I guess it is the Kyoto Accord to limit the amount of carbon put on the air. The alternative fuels are not as cost effective, it gets real cold here in the winter and I could imagine some elderly lady getting out her shopping cart and walking down the street to Safeway or Superstore or whatever grocery market is the closet and not making it.
And for someone like my husband who has to depend on the car because he cannot walk fast and he cannot walk that far to even catch the bus. Are we doomed to be stranded in our house because of the high gas prices? And what about the older people? Are they collateral damage on the search of alternative fuels when gas and oil is cheaper and more economical unless artificially jacked up?
Does anyone have an answer for this madness?
6 people like this
12 responses
@Grandmaof2 (7579)
• Canada
14 Sep 08
I'm in Saskatchewan and our gas went up also although ours is still less than yours. We're paying 136.9 and they're trying to say that hurricane Ike is to blame for all this, but my husband says he wonders if it's a political thing with the up coming election. Personally I think they're just coming up with one excuse after the other and no matter what happens it is a natural resource in our country and if we had a decent government they could put a stop to all this crap. that's just my opinion.
3 people like this
@geekyjock (371)
• Philippines
14 Sep 08
It's so expensive! Anyways in my opinion maybe the Canadian Government is putting a high tax levies for the gasoline companies to discourage your countrymen to buy gasoline, maybe to lessen the air pollution that causes global warming. i think sooner or later your government will also integrate alternative fuels to your country of course again for the environmental purposes. Maybe they are "preparing" you guys to shift on alternative fuels
2 people like this
@Lakota12 (42600)
• United States
14 Sep 08
I really doont know why your gas should go up!. I know my sons did and they live in TEnn. WE didnt go our so I am not sure if ours went up or not but Thrusday it was at $3.63 a Gallon
Has been going down the last few months!
They say here if you find some one gouging to turn them in.
Son Said north of his town it was up to over $5 at some Gas stations!
1 person likes this
@suspenseful (40193)
• Canada
14 Sep 08
In Canada there is no competition in the gas companies, so when one goes up, the others follow. And really we should not be going up because we produce our own gas and do off shore drilling. I think the oil companies want to make money. I hate to see what will happen in winter. It gets down to 40 below up here.
@theproperator (2429)
• United States
14 Sep 08
Even if your province produces it's own oil, it may not refine it, and it still probably sells it according to prices on the world market, not just based on what is happening in Canada. Many refineries along the gulf coast have shut down temporarly due to Ike. These refine about 20% of the gas used in the US, so the prices of gas shot up (even though the gas we are now gettting from gas stations was bought at cheaper prices earlier, but that's another discussion). So, the companies with refineries that are still open get to charge more for their gas since there is less gas to go around. Once the refineries open up again, the prices will go down.
1 person likes this
@suspenseful (40193)
• Canada
15 Sep 08
What I cannot understand is why can they not sell the cheaper gas at the low price and as soon as the expensive gas comes in, sell at that price? That is what happens when you do into a store. They get rid of the old stock, and then they sell the new stuff at the new prices. And once the oil refineries open up again after Ike, do you really believe the gas prices will go down again?
@stephcjh (38473)
• United States
14 Sep 08
I have heard that the gas prices are shooting up because of the hurricane IKE in the gulf of Mexico, down by Florida and Texas. The had to close down oil refineries because of the hurricane, which made gas prices shoot up. I hope it comes back down again. It is already high enough.
2 people like this
@suspenseful (40193)
• Canada
14 Sep 08
I hope it comes down, but we live in Canada. We have oil in Alberta, Saskatchewan, and they are talking about offshore drilling on the East Coast, so why do we have to raise our gas prices? We should be lowering them so that the people in the States can say, "Look Canada drills its own oil, we should do ours and get as low a gas prices as they do,?" but it seems that is not encouraging America to drill for oil on its own land. Instead this is discouraging them.
1 person likes this
@LittleMel (8742)
• Canada
14 Sep 08
this is what I found online and that's what I believe to happen
http://news.sympatico.msn.ctv.ca/Gas+prices+keep+rising+into+the+weekend/Home/ContentPosting?isfa=1&newsitemid=CTVNews%2f20080913%2fgas_prices_080913&feedname=CTV-TOPSTORIES_V3&show=False&number=0&showbyline=True&subtitle=&detect=&abc=abc&date=True
oil is big money maker since a lot of things we depend on these days is using it as fuel. they wouldn't want to lose money even in the event of natural disaster so there you go we are paying higher price because they are not producing as much due to possibility of getting hit by disaster. and the article says these companies aren't even competing with each other so we are trapped basically
@suspenseful (40193)
• Canada
14 Sep 08
That does make sense. My husband just filled up before the price went up and then we went yesterday and the price was sky high. We get 35 miles to a gallon with our car so we should be all right for a while, at least a week and probably more, but we do have to go to the Big Gym in Winnipeg, twice a week and on one of those days, shopping and we drive to the Mall to pay our bills or to look around. So what do we do?
They really should compete, it is really a price gourge.
1 person likes this
@ronaldinu (12422)
• Malta
14 Sep 08
No unfortunately I don't have a magic solution how the gas prices can go drastically down. Scientist have estimated that there is enough resources for 25 years more and the demand is always on the increase.
Perhaps we should learn to lower our demand by saving energy, switching off lighting at home that we don't need, not letting the computers on 24 hrs a day when we are not using it. We can shift to solar energy panels in hot countries where sun can be a free great resource. There should be an investment in new kinds of energy.
What about pooling, giving lifts to other co-workers. So instead of having four cars going into the same destination, you can have one car with four people in it. This saves money and lowers our fuel demand.
1 person likes this
@suspenseful (40193)
• Canada
14 Sep 08
Even if we did all those things, and we do some of them - it would not do much good. Lets say, keeping the computer off at night, do that. We have geothermo energy but it costs more to convert an already made house to it, we would have to wreck our house. move our furniture or get rid of it and move in with our sons to get it done cheaper. Car pooling is all right if you all work in the same place.
I heard that they will go down later, but i think it is to do with greed. There are alternative energy but well I heard in the States, that the envirommentallsts are blocking that.
And in the prairies here it gets really cold in the winter. We could suggest those people who moved here from warmer countries move back to where they came from so that the European Canadians who had to move from the West Coast which had a similar climate to Western Europe could move back, but that would not be politically correct.
@callarse1 (4783)
• United States
14 Sep 08
It's because of the hurricanes & our dependence on foreign oils. We need to start relying less on oil & more on other forms because it pollutes the environment , right? Well, you have to use your gasoline wisely & make sure you are doing all things on your "to do list" in one trip.
Pablo
1 person likes this
@HomeFlower (987)
• Canada
15 Sep 08
I'm in Ontario (near the Detroit border). Ours went up to 139.9 and some places were slightly over the 140. mark.
In a small way I consider us lucky because we heard about the prices going up all over the place (Toronto, Vancouver etc.) at least a full day before the prices were raised at the stations around here. On the news they said it will be blamed on the hurricane even though the hurricane hadn't hit shore yet -- so they were urging the officials to look into the reasons behind the price gouging. I mean, I can understand the prices going up after a hurricane hits shore and affects the production and transportation of the crude oil (or whatever) but what's happening now is pure greed and it's insane.
Realistically, what can we do to help out the situation?
@chrislotz (8137)
• Canada
15 Sep 08
I live in Alberta and our gas went up too. Not quite as high as yours but still at about $1.39 or so. But that is today and it is Monday. On the weekend it was even more. It went up to $1.52 according to the news, although I never saw that amount at the pumps, although I didn't need any gas so I never had to pay that much. I think it is a real crisis that the government needs to stop. They need to have some kind of control over the prices and should be doing something about it. Harper even said on the news that the gas companies are gouging us. His exact words were that it is a pricing gouge from the gas companies, unless he is just using them to put the blame on, because he doesn't want to be at fault, as in the government taxes on the gas. So he has to blame the oil companies, would hurt the election if he admitted that a lot of the increase is going to the government. I think the days of gas being under $1.00 a litre are over and we will never see those prices again.
1 person likes this
@wildplace (154)
• Germany
14 Sep 08
Sorry, to read that your gas price is getting higher.
But- I don´t think it is the end price.It is still rising.
Here in Europe we are paying up to 1.55 Euro (1 Euro is 1.40 $)for each liter.
And all energy prices have rised up to 20%.
We have old people here who aren´t able to pay their electricity bill because of the rising prices.
Believe me or not- your are on the cheaper side of our planet.
1 person likes this
@suspenseful (40193)
• Canada
14 Sep 08
OH ours are higher than yours. $1.44 a liter is high than $1.40 a liter. And we have oil in our province and the two to the west of us, so there is absolutely no reason for it to go up. I think there is something to do with greed and with not caring for the people of this planet. We really should be lower. And here it gets really cold in the winter. Electricity bills will be the least of our worries, it is keeping ourselves warm. We have insulated our attic, but with my husband's stroke and not being to get around, we cannot finish insulating our basement.
@1hopefulman (45123)
• Canada
14 Sep 08
Here in Quebec, it was 149.9. So what can a person do? I just purchased a product that I will add to my fuel when I gas up and it is supposed to clean the engine and make it run smoother so that there are less pollutants and it's supposed to improve gas mileage up to about 25%. Just waiting for my tank to go down. I hope The results are real. Time will tell. If it is real it would help as gas prices will probably rise even more in the future.
