Petro-Canada to make fuel pre-payment mandatory at all Ontario pumps

Drivers stopping to fill up at any Petro-Canada station in Ontario will have to pre-pay for fuel starting next month, the corporation says.

Petro-Canada, a retail and wholesale marketing brand subsidiary of Suncor Energy, told Global News in a statement that it is implementing the policy at all of its stations in the province after the Labour Day long weekend.

“We’re introducing a safer and more efficient way for customers to fill up at the majority of Petro-Canada retail sites in Ontario,” a spokesperson said.

“Starting Sept. 3, 2024, customers will be prompted to pre-pay for fuel either at the pump or in-store.”

Global News observed an official company notice above a pump at a Petro-Canada station in Toronto earlier this month.

About 78 per cent of gas stations in Canada are owned independently and not by an integrated gas company, according to the Canadian Fuels Association, which represents Canada’s petroleum refining, distribution and marketing sector.

These retailers may choose to enforce pre-payment as a commercial practice, and several gas stations across the province have been doing so as of late, Global News has witnessed.

A spokesperson for Shell told Global News in an email it has rolled out pre-payment platforms across its network in jurisdictions where pre-pay legislation exists, or at select sites considered higher risk for theft.

“In jurisdictions where pre-pay legislation doesn’t exist, such as in Ontario, we continually monitor the local market and make the best decision for each site based on safety, security and customer needs,” they said.

With safety top of mind, Petro-Canada said it’s making pre-payment mandatory in Ontario going forward.

“Pre-paying is common at our sites in other parts of Canada, and we’re pleased to expand it to Ontario,” the spokesperson said.

“We’re making this proactive change to ensure everyone’s safety at our sites and to reduce the risk of fuel theft. In addition to signs posted at our sites, there will be additional communications to ensure customers are aware of the change.”

Petro-Canada would not say how often it estimates fuel theft occurs at its locations, nor how much money it loses to fuel theft per year.

However, fuel theft has been an issue throughout Canada over the past few years.

It really began to make headlines in 2022 following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, when sanctions on Russia dampened world oil supply, sending prices skyrocketing. At one point, the average price of gas in Canada was more than $2 per litre.

That year, Saskatchewan RCMP said fuel thefts in the province were up 70 per cent compared with 2021. Most reports it received were of vehicles fuelling at a service station and then leaving without paying.

However, 117 reports were made of theft by drilling large fuel tanks or fuel siphoning from heavy machinery. Another 106 reports were about fuel being stolen from tanks at businesses, farms or rural municipalities.

In New Brunswick, the head of the New Brunswick Association of Chiefs of Police said earlier this year that between 2020 and 2023, the province’s police agencies, including the RCMP, received 5,200 complaints about people stealing gas from fuel pumps.

In a letter to the province’s petroleum retailers, Gary Forward said New Brunswick police officers would no longer investigate thefts of fuel from service stations unless there is a threat to public safety.

Forward said the change was needed because there are more effective ways of dealing with the steady increase in fuel thefts. It took effect April 15.

Meanwhile, the Ontario Association of Chiefs of Police has been calling on Premier Doug Ford’s government to support a pay-before-you-pump bill brought forward by a backbench member of the governing party four years ago.

Deepak Anand, the Tory member for Mississauga-Milton, reintroduced Bill 88, Protecting Ontarians by Enhancing Gas Station Safety to Prevent Gas and Dash Act, last year.

He has said the proposed law could save lives, and has cited the deaths of attendants Jayesh Prajapati in Toronto in September 2012 and Atifeh Rad in Mississauga in May 2011. Both were killed when they tried to stop fuel thefts.

Anand’s bill was referred to the standing committee on justice policy for study in April 2023, where it remains.

“I am thankful to Petro-Canada for taking this bold and needed step in the right direction for creating a safe environment for workers, to those who are bystanders as consumers at a gas station and to those who put their lives at risk by driving off without paying at the gas station; they’re also equally vulnerable,” Anand said in a statement to Global News.

“In Ontario, multiple lives have been lost, including those of employees, of bystanders and even of somebody who’s driving off after a gas-and-dash. The simple solution of changing consumer habit to pay before pumping gas will save the pain of losing these loved ones.”

— with files from The Canadian Press