Regulating gas prices would only cost Ontarians more at the pumps: analyst

The NDP is calling on the Ontario Energy Board (OEB) to regulate the retail price and wholesale markup of petroleum products in the province.

Timmins NDP MPP Gilles Bisson is expected to table a private member’s bill at Queen’s Park Wednesday that would give the OEB the mandate to protect the interest of consumers by implementing predictable and consistent retail pricing of gasoline.

According to the senior petroleum analyst with GasBuddy.com, Dan McTeague, the average person would end up paying more at the pumps.

“In a market like London, with average consumers using about 60 litres a week and knowing exactly when to buy, the total loss on 60 litres would probably work out in the vicinity of about a $300 to $400 loss per driver per year,” said McTeague.

The best times to buy, said McTeague, are in the evenings or late evenings.

“That’s the retailers competing against each other,” he said.

If retailers are forced to regulate, drivers won’t see prices dip in the evening.

“In the afternoon the price drops from anywhere between 5 cents to 10 cents a litre,” said McTeague. “On a day like Tuesday, we started off the morning $1.37, $1.38 a litre. By the evening it was down to $1.27, $1.28.”

 “Under a regulated regime that would end and you would always be paying the highest price.”

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McTeague believes the regulation would hurt motorists more than it would help.

“When you can’t figure out and you can’t understand how energy markets domestically and globally work, then default back to simply regulating. I don’t think that’s going to work,” he said.

“The idea of advancing it is one thing for political reasons, but the idea itself, if implemented, would be dumber than a bag of hammers.”

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The bill would also ensure transparency when it comes to the price of gas.

NDP Leader Andrea Horwath has been critical in the past about gas companies gouging motorists by significantly raising prices before and during a long weekend.