Why are gas pump prices still so high?

Re Global unease as U.S. crude drops below $40

per barrel, Aug. 22 While the media and the opposing parties are gnawing on the Mike Duffy trial, our attention is being diverted from much more serious issues that no one is focusing on.

Last time oil prices were near to the present level was between the years 2000-01. The average price of consumer gasoline in Toronto was about 70 cents a litre. Yes, there is an inflation factor, but considering that the same litre now is around $1.10, it is way too high. Why?

My belief on this is that it is too profitable a commodity for both governments and the oil companies and their shareholders to reduce prices proportionally to the public.

The campaigning political parties keep this off the agenda because no matter which party will govern after the election, they will need the taxes generated from consumer fuel. The higher the gas prices at the pump, the more taxes they collect.

Meanwhile the Duffy trial drags on, hairsplitting on who knew when and what, which has absolutely no significance to our day-to-day life.

What, however, affects almost all living adults in this country directly and daily is what we pay when we fill up our vehicles, and what our commodity suppliers pay for energy costs.

Let’s get over the Duffy charade fast and turn our attention to real issues that are more pertinent to us all. Zoltan Zavorsky, Port Hope, Ont.

Re TSX slumps to eight-month low, Aug. 21

I find it strange that with stories reporting that the oil industry has reached a new low, Canadian motorists are still paying about the same price per litre for gasoline as they were when the price per barrel of oil was selling for about $100 per barrel, which is less than half the price per barrel today.

We should not be fooled by the occasional drop of a few cents per litre from time to time by gas stations. I guess the oil industry motto of “jobs, jobs, jobs” is now being replaced with “profits, profits, profits.” John Weingust, Toronto