‘Don’t rip off consumers’: Alberta premier claps back at rising price of gas

Gas prices shot up in Calgary this week, with motorists looking forward to lower prices after April 1 when the consumer carbon tax ends.

Alberta’s premier had some tough talk for gas station owners Friday.

With consumer carbon pricing set to end on March 31, drivers are looking forward to a break at the pumps, but this week, prices at the pump shot up across Calgary.

According to GasBuddy.com, the price of a litre of regular gas was around $1.54 a litre Saturday morning.

They say that’s up 5.3 cents per litre from last week, but anecdotally, prices appeared to rise even more this week, with some stations raising prices as much as 13 cents a litre.

On March 22, the average price of a litre of gas in Calgary was $1.45

When asked about it at a press conference Friday in Calgary, Premier Danielle Smith didn’t mince words.

“Don’t rip off consumers, is my message to the gas companies, because we have a way of catching you,” she responded.

“We know what the wholesale prices are, we monitor those closely. And [Minister of Service Alberta and Red Tape] Dale Nally has the means to be able to ensure that those savings are passed through to customers. So they’ve got another couple of days to make sure that they’re appropriately pricing their product.”

The carbon tax adds about 17 cents a litre to the price of gas.

A spokesperson for Nally’s office told CTV News that no incidents of price gouging have been identified.

“In general, the retail prices between local fuel stations have been within reason and continue to be lower than average prices in other provinces,” Brandon Aboultaif wrote.

“Albertans are encouraged to shop around for the best gas price, just as they would in any competitive market environment.”

One fuel analyst said the price jump was due to the switchover to summer gas, which is more expensive.

Gas Buddy head of petroleum analysis Patrick De Haan said in an email to CTV News that “the jump (in price) that we saw this week was entirely related to the summer gasoline transition, which is now complete. We should see relief with the carbon tax pause.”

Prices are expected to drop again on April 1, when the federal consumer carbon tax is removed.

With files from CTV’s Karyn Mulcahy