Hello and welcome back to Tyson’s Thoughts.
I’ve been on quite the roll lately, writing editorials and speaking my mind on all things I find interesting. What will I be discussing this week, you might be wondering?
Well, it will be none other than gas prices.
Yes, it is a time-honoured north Island tradition to complain about our gas prices being so high (129 in Port Hardy last I checked), and I’m finally going to take the plunge and wade into the debate.
I think it’s fairly obvious to anyone who lives here that the price of gas is outrageous.
Why should we be paying more than the actual cost of driving the fuel up from Campbell River? To put it plainly and simply, it’s gouging.
If you want to argue that point, go ahead and send in a letter to the editor and try, but Port McNeill local Bill McQuarrie has already crunched the numbers and proved we are getting gouged. All you have to do is google “Bill McQuarrie gas prices North Island Gazette” and you can give his excellent columns on gas gouging a re-read and educate yourself.
Or, how about I just link the columns below?
RELATED: Gas prices here are outrageous
RELATED: Gouging me less than you gouged me is still gouging
Which leads to my next point; where’s the accountability?
I know our North Island-Powell River MP Rachel Blaney wrote a letter in 2019 requesting for federal agency to oversee gas prices in B.C., but did anything actually end up getting done about it?
Recently in the news it was also announced that there are four communities that are going to be having their gas prices tracked, Revelstoke, Powell River, Port Alberni and Squamish, and here I am wondering why exactly the north Island area, or at the very least Port Hardy, isn’t going to be included in this study.
Does anyone have an answer to this?
Well, according to an article on the issue, MLA for Columbia River-Revelstoke, Doug Clovechok, sent a letter in April demanding answers to the stark differences in gas prices within the constituency.
Where was our MLA Claire Trevena when we needed her? She should have been on top of this, fighting for our gas prices to be tracked just like these other communities.
Tyson Whitney is an award-winning journalist who was born and raised in Port Hardy. His family has lived in Port Hardy for more than 40 years. He graduated with a degree in writing from Vancouver Island University in 2008. Email: editor@northislandgazette.com