Dear editor,
I am appalled that local gas stations are charging prices for gas equal to or higher than Victoria! At the time of this writing (March 3/21), prices in the Comox Valley are higher, by five to seven cents per liter than Nanaimo, Parksville, and Campbell River. This price variance has been going on for at least three or four months.
I first became aware of this as my wife and I had to travel to Victoria in early January and into February for medical appointments and treatments. At that time we were actually higher than Victoria (and anywhere else as we drove south) which makes no sense as they pay a transit premium of five cents a litre!
So where is that five-cent premium, that we are paying, going? I presume into the pockets of the owner of our gas bars… and they are doing this during a pandemic! Restaurants, food stores, tradespeople etc. are struggling to keep their costs down and their biggest expense is transportation.
This bite that the gas bars are putting on the citizens of Comox Valley is analogous to when the pandemic first hit and people were buying and reselling toilet paper at exorbitant prices. Those individuals were pilloried and taken to task by the government. Have we heard from any of our elected officials? In fact, where is the review of gas prices our provincial government undertook last year? Will there be any follow-up by the government?
Up until recently, we were paying within four-to-five cents of what Costco charges. Now it is 10 cents a litre. Why are we being taken advantage of in the Comox Valley?
Obviously, the gas companies need a watchdog, because they are out of control in our Valley!
Mike Copp,
Comox Valley