B.C. Premier John Horgan says he’s hopeful the larger oil and gas companies will eventually share their retail and refining margins with the provincial gas price inquiry.
But he hinted those companies could soon find themselves subject to court orders if they don’t comply with the B.C. Utilities Commission’s (BCUC) probe.
“I think it tells a story in and of itself when we say to the companies that have been making windfall profits ‘how much are you making’ and they say ‘we’re not prepared to tell you that,'” the premier said.
“If we end up in court over something like this, that tells another story.”
The BCUC has been tasked with probing the factors underlying B.C.’s high gas prices and establishing a “common set of facts” about the market.
But in submissions to the BCUC, Suncor Energy, Parkland Fuel Corporation, Husky Energy, Shell Canada and Imperial Oil said they can’t give the regulator details about their margins for reasons of confidentiality and “competitive sensitivity.”
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All five companies declined to provide data on their refining margins, while Suncor, Husky and Shell did not answer questions on retail margins, which would illustrate the difference between wholesale and retail prices after taxes.
In an email to Global News Wednesday, commission chair and CEO David Morton said the regulator could use its legislated powers to compel evidence, but noted the process “could be time consuming.”
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Horgan said he’s putting his trust in Morton and the inquiry panel to exercise those powers if necessary.
“I know the commission in its wisdom will find a way forward,” he said. “I’ll leave those decisions to Mr. Morton and the commission to figure that out.”
In an email Thursday, Shell Canada spokesperson Tara Lemay said the company is “fully participating” with the probe “to the best of our ability,” and will speak with the BCUC to “understand their procedures going forward.”
“Shell Canada does not publicly disclose commercially sensitive and confidential financial information such as retail margins to competitors and other commercial counterparties,” Lemay said. “Likewise, Shell Canada does not have access to its competitors’ commercially sensitive and confidential financial information.”
A spokesperson for Suncor Energy said Friday the company is working with the BCUC to provide “information that is not competitively sensitive.”
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Other companies that didn’t share their margins with the inquiry did not immediately return requests for comment.
Horgan said the goal of the inquiry isn’t to detail individual companies’ operations, but rather to “tell a narrative where these increases are going.”
The premier was referring to the recent swing of gas prices in Metro Vancouver to as low as $1.30 per litre earlier this month, after a spring that saw prices climb past $1.70 per litre.
Those prices, which marked a new record for a North American market, sparked a bitter political battle over their cause.
The BC Liberals called for an end to the various taxes that add as much as 40 cents per litre to the price of gas in parts of B.C.
One of those taxes, the motor fuel tax that goes in part to TransLink, went up by 1.6 cents per litre on July 1.
The BCUC inquiry has come under fire for not including those taxes in its mandate, with the commission only tasked with looking at the role oil companies play.
But Horgan said Thursday those taxes have nothing to do with why prices go up and down depending on the season or even the week.
“Someone asked if I was getting a lot of mail thanking me for the decline in gas prices. Well, of course not,” he said.
“People understand there are taxes on their fuel, and they may not be happy about that, but they know that pays for the roads, it pays for TransLink, it pays for improving services. They don’t know where the 40 cents went last week. What was that all about? That’s what the commission is tasked to do.”
A final report from the inquiry is due by Aug. 30. Oral hearings are set to begin next week.
— With files from Simon Little
WATCH: A brief history of gas prices in B.C.
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