It’s interesting the cartel of oil companies retailing gas across Canada have fixed and manipulated gas prices for years. Yet in my lifetime, I cannot remember even one protest rally of angry residents in the streets of downtown Calgary, screaming “lock them up” … ‘them’ being male oil executives!
Yes, our gas prices are higher today than on December 1. However, the carbon tax of 4.5 cents on January 1 was just a small bump compared to the six to 10 cent jumps that oil companies were subjecting us to during the month of December.
The proceeds collected from the carbon tax is staying right here in good old Alberta and will be spent creating jobs and helping to diversify a province that is again serving the sentence for putting all their economic eggs in one basket.
It is also the potential savior of the oil industry as a carbon tax was the only way Ottawa could justify the approval of new pipelines and curtail some of the protests.
Oil companies polluted the world enough to put it on life supports and now need governments to help them ‘green’ up, build a new business model, save their profits and eventually create jobs for, we, the little guys.
In the meantime, I’m ready to go. Let’s get a protest together and rally against big oil and the informal price fixing amongst our gas retailers.
That would save me a lot more money than the effects of a puny carbon tax.