2 days Ago By Rob Shaw
The Petro-Canada gas station in the Hillside area of Victoria is pictured on April 1, 2025. (CHEK News)" data-medium-file="https://i0.wp.
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jpg?fit=780%2C439&ssl=1" />B.C.’s energy minister says he has full confidence in the province’s independent energy regulator to keep tabs on oil and gas companies to make sure they aren’t gouging people at the pump instead of passing on an estimated 17 cents per litre in savings due to the elimination of the carbon tax.
Adrian Dix said the BC Utilities Commission has the authority it needs from a 2019 fuel transparency law to dig into the data from provincial gas stations and ensure they are passing on the savings.“I think we have an excellent utilities commission and a world-leading chair in Mark Jaccard and I think they are on the case to show when the prices are not justified by the explanations by the oil and gas companies,” said Dix.The government passed legislation early Tuesday morning to end the consumer carbon tax immediately.
That removes 17 cents a litre of tax off the price of gasoline, 20 cents a litre off of diesel and $4 per gigajoule of tax on natural gas. Reports from gas stations around Victoria indicate that many lowered prices approximately 17 cents per litre Tuesday morning, in line with government expectations. But it’s not clear how long that will last, and given how secretive and complex gas pricing is, involving international factors and price sensitivities, it’s also not clear how consumers will track the savings during future price volatility.
RELATED: Gas prices tumble in Greater Victoria after B.C. eliminates consumer carbon taxCommission chairperson Mark Jaccard said his independent agency has the legal powers it needs to extract and track data from fuel providers.
“Right now I bet you a lot of people may assume all those companies are going to eat up that 17 cents of carbon tax that we were paying,” said Jaccard. “We’re going to do our best to make sure that it’s very transparent and we’ll be able to compare. The carbon tax is going down right across the country, but we can compare to neighbouring jurisdictions to the south of us and so on.
”Not everyone is convinced. Opposition Conservative MLA Bruce Banman said he’s seen the commission unable to explain price differences between gas at stations in the communities of Metro Vancouver and the Fraser Valley. The Conservatives also suspect the NDP government left itself wiggle room to bring back the carbon tax one day, under the legislation.
“No, I don’t have a lot of faith in this government and I don’t have a lot of faith in the commission being able to do anything because they’ve proven time and time again they are toothless,” he said.The government continues to face questions about how it will recover almost $3 billion in revenue lost from the carbon tax. Premier David Eby has said he will eliminate climate action tax credit cheques to low-income British Columbians, worth up to $1 billion.
Dix suggested he’s conducting a review of other climate programs to save money, and raised the potential that electric vehicle subsidies could also be on the chopping block.The post Rob Shaw: B.C.
promises to track carbon tax savings at pump appeared first on CHEK..
