Premier Ford sounds off on gas prices

Sticker shock at the pumps. This is where we begin. After a 14 cent jump at the price of gas as of midnight. Midnight. Sorry, I can’t even get my words out because I’m shocked. Let’s bring in our Shauna hunt. She’s gathering all of the reaction to this Shawna. This is not pretty for a lot of people. Oh yeah, You know what, Mel? It’s one of those days when drivers pulling into gas stations have their jaws on the ground. This is a massive spike. Like you said, the price of gas is up 14 cents a liter. This is the highest price that we have paid since August of 2022. So as you can imagine, and as you just said, there is a lot of sticker shock this morning. I know according to some industry experts, a lot of this has to do with the switch over to the summer blend of gasoline. The ingredients used are apparently much more expensive. The premier though has a bit of a different take and sounded off at a Morning News conference. Have a listen. It’s unacceptable. Everywhere I was going it was about $1.59. You wake up this morning. And it’s $1.80, you know, it’s absolutely disgusting. Number one is disgusting what the oil companies are doing. You know, I have my opinion that it’s not physically possible to drain every single gas station and put the fresh stuff in. So either you’re putting the fresh stuff in last month or you’re gouging the people right now. And So what I did, I I called up my friends in the US in the same climate because they they use this excuse up here, these oil companies. That, in my opinion, are gouging the people. Now, one thing we have noticed today is that gas stations are not as busy. It appears that lots of drivers heeded the warnings and filled up before midnight. Of course, yesterday we did see long lineups at gas stations right across the GTA, with drivers just trying to cash in on the savings. 680 Business Editor Mike Apple is also weighing in on the impact of these high prices. So there’s lots of oil that’s not the issue. Oil supplies are high, it’s the refining capacity. We haven’t had a refinery built in Eastern Canada for since whenever you can’t get a pipeline built and it’s and it’s just you know anytime there is any type of disruption in the system. Up goes the price for gas. And look, the implications of this inflation boom, now we’re talking about inflation again. And what does that, you know, do for the Bank of Canada on interest rates if gas prices go up, making everything more expensive? So for many gassing up here today, you know, just getting to work is now more expensive. And industry experts say prices will likely be elevated for the next several months. But there is a glimmer of good news to all of this after, you know, the major spike we’re seeing right now, the price of gas is expected to drop by about four cents a liter at midnight. So if you can hold off on filling up today, give it a go tomorrow, you might see a little savings, not much. But Mel, right now it’s better than nothing.