Gasoline shortage is a business opportunity for Canada
The shell game continues with gas prices. If I understand the article regarding this annual gouging by retailers, there is not enough gasoline to go around?
The two refineries conveniently do maintenance shutdowns at the same time. No manipulation of the market there, huh? Both, by the way, are on the U.S. side of the border. We Canadians dependant on U.S. gas supplies sure are a tolerant bunch, eh?
Sounds like a business opportunity maybe for a Canadian company — some of that Alberta oil turned into gasoline for consumers in B.C. and Alberta instead of going offshore.
David Merke, Richmond
Don't fill your gas tank
Big Oil is blaming high gasoline prices on low supply. They call it supply and demand. I call it simply disgusting gouging!
I have a suggestion on how to restock. Simply do not fill up. I don’t!
By not filling up and leaving the juice in their tanks rather than carrying dead weight in yours, they will have an instant surplus!
Tony Paone, Port Coquitlam
We'll pay for lower MSP bills
The B.C. Liberal Party just sent out a pamphlet stating that they have reduced Medical Services Plan premiums by 50 per cent, saving families up to $900 a year, and that the NDP would roll MSP into other taxes, thus hiding but not eliminating the premiums.
We know that the money has to come from somewhere, so I wonder if the Liberals plan to get the money from ICBC, B.C. Hydro or bridge tolls. If the government spent it, taxpayers had to have supplied it. We just do not know how our gas tax or our ICBC payments are going to be used.
Wouldn’t it be nice to go back to a time when gas taxes went to roads, the sales tax was used for health and education programs, and Crown corporations were not piggy banks for the government to raid any time they wanted? Wayne Wagstaff, Surrey
Corporate greed to blame
The executive compensation situation at Bombardier is the current trend in the corporate world and the only reason prices keep going up. The greed at the top causes everyone else to suffer. The need for control has been obvious.
Unfortunately, those who could remedy this, the government, are members of the exclusive group. Since we have an opportunity shortly to show our dismay, wouldn’t it be a good idea to ask our local politicians where they stand on this issue? Why wait until butter is $25 a pound?
Freda Betker, Burnaby
'Armchair officials' spoil golf
After the debacle at the ANA Inspiration golf tournament at Mission Hills Country Club in Rancho Mirage, Calif., and the ruling that cost Lexi Thompson a major title last weekend, professional golf needs to re-examine the way the rules are enforced.
No other sport allows TV viewers to point out rule infractions and have the governing body accept the viewpoint after the fact. It’s utter nonsense. Can people not simply watch the tournament and enjoy it? These armchair officials are a royal pain and should be ignored by the PGA and the LPGA.
Then again, how long did it take for these folks to allow soft spikes as acceptable footwear, eliminating those unrepairable spike marks on the greens? The wheels of golf grind too slowly at times. TV watching “officials” ruining the game is one of those times.
George Pearson, Surrey