Without doing any research on the validity of my assumption...I assumed that the gas prices on PEI were always behind other places. So that when the gas price goes up elsewhere, PEI (for a short time) has lower prices. When the gas price goes down elsewhere, PEI has higher prices for a while. I assumed it all balanced out by the time we all die.

The extra costs of administration couldn't allow that - unless the administration costs are being sold to you as taxes.

Gas is an issue in Moncton where the price can change by up to 10 cents(I just realized I don't have the sign for cents on my keyboard) a litre in just one day and where there are vicious gas wars, driving the small guy out of business and leaving the residents to the whim of the remaining few (Irving being a god or devil, depending to whom you talk), who no doubt will start gouging when the dust settles.

Hmmm...what senario sounds better to you?

Well if you need a bureaucracy to protect you from the sheer, utter madness of a $2.50 buck shift in the price of a tank gas I guess the extra costs for that bureaucracy and the loss of market forces creating lower prices through competition is worth it. I had no idea spud island's panic level was that sensative but you learn a new thing every day...

In a small market like PEI, profit depends less on volume and more on pricing. With so much of our small economy dependent on this energy source, it makes sense in the long run, to have some sort of consistancy in pricing. All this while not stifling free enterprise. Best described a good trade-off.

Odd that that makes no economic sense. PEI is not a small market but part of the moderate market of the Maritimes. Check the link on wholesaling above. Two companies have divided the entire market neatly. The only thing that makes PEI's gasoline market act separately is the self-fulfilling act of the oddly singular regulartory scheme. With the Bridge there is no difference between trucking or shipping petroleum from a NB or NS refinery to Charlottetown or Sydney, except Sydney is farther away. So to create special market conditions a statute was created which includes price regulation to ensure the special market conditions do not create undue price shifting - not lower price, just less price change. All of which costs extra taxes and extra at the fuel pump. All to avoid price fluxuations of a twoonie a week for average car use. You can see what s really occuring is the need to ensure suits are behind desks in a scheme that would embarrass the commisar of a Bulgarian backwater in 1973 but if that is how you like spending money, enjoy.

Transportation costs rarely make any sense in the petroleum industry. K.C. retails his gas 8 cents a litre(converted not by me)less in Maine then in St. John, the location of his refinery. I was not an economics major, but I think it is a stretch to consider the Maritimes a moderate market. Amazing the admiration for the Island system has in N.B. I am in agreement with them...the stupid fluctuations and tourist gouging by the big players need a suit or two to keep 'em honest. There is much more to price regulation then what you and I see each week with an extra toonie. As a consumer-only energy market, the Island economy is greatly impacted by fluctuations.

I hope auto insurance is next,'cause I don't wanna pay the same rate as the fools that crack up their cars on our roads, which would happen with NDP no-fault.

‹mucho blunto›Read your own words. They maka no sensa. This has nothing to do with economics, costs or anything other than staffing. You are believing in what you are told. I can't be plainer. Add costs to the economics formula and those costs will be paid by the consumer - if you want someone to smooth the bad bits of your life out, you will pay for it. Just think on this - why would the tourist give a rats ass about 2.50 buck fluxuation on a tank of gas when that is where the other 99.99999999% of North America knows about. Sure, if you want to pay for Moorse suits behind MDF desks, pay for the suits - that is all you and the law are doing.‹/muchoblunto›

Whatever spin you wanna put on it...yeah, sometimes it is a good idea to pay someone to smooth things out...plumbers, mechanics, etc all do it, and I use 'em to smooth out my life.

And since we are talking about the same thing...paying suits to smooth things out...we are dealing with costs, unless they do it for free, which I doubt. Regardless, it still is a "good thing". And it makes sense to me.

We shall then agree to disagree.

Interesting to note that PEI is now 7 to 8 cents above local Kingston prices.

PEI's useless regulators of gas prices order the price dropped to just 13 cents a litre over the prices in rural eastern Ontario.

And then, <A rhef="http://www.cbc.ca/story/business/national/2004/08/30/oil_040830.html">as world prices drop</a>, gas stays high and oil goes up. Yup, there's great value in the regulation of petroleum...to somebody.

Interesting to note that, despite local refining in NS and NB, the blotocracy continues to lock in gasoline at rates 10 cents over eastern Ontario.

Well, surprise surprise: someone has proven gas prices in PEI are artificially inflated by the price regulatory body. Interesting to note that the cause of the falsely high prices does not appear to take into account the extra paid in provincial tax on gasoline to pay for the cost of the bureaucracy that has as its job setting prices falsely high.

Now under 80 cents after a recent prices in the 1.15 to 1.35 range.

Bought 80 litres at 69.9 cents today.

Ha! 69.4 cents just north of Highway 401 on highway 15 today.

I saw 69.1 on Bath Road.

68.9 again on Highway 15.

Filled my matrix for about $26 from close to empty. Wowzers.