The Bonnyville RCMP General Investigation Section (GIS) is investigating gas price fixing in town, after a resident called worried about high gas prices.
“I think what the concern is, is recently the Cold Lake prices have been significantly lower across the board. There is really a concern as to why that is, and that’s what we’re looking into,” explained Cst. Ben Burgess of the Bonnyville RCMP.
The complaint came in last week, and sparked an investigation that could take a significant amount of time, Burgess detailed.
“It’s still in its early stages, but if it’s an offence, it would be under the Competition Act, which states that you can’t get together with competitors and decide on a price for product.”
So far, Burgess has conducted thorough research on the issue in order to understand the legislation.
“Through my research, I don’t necessarily think there is something illegal going on. There is no regulatory price they have to sell gas for, they can really sell it for whatever they want, so long as it’s within the market margin,” he explained.
Cpl. Kim Hillier added, prices are set across Canada, and currently, it seems as though local gas stations are within range.
There are a number of factors deliberated when setting the price of fuel.
According to Burgess, the location and size of the town are two considerations.
“The offence would occur when a number of gas station owners would get together to fix that price higher than others,” Hillier said.
At this point, they don’t have any gas stations in particular in mind.
In order to obtain documentation from the gas stations in Bonnyville, Burgess is required to prove there are grounds that an offence even occurred.
He explained, “I have to have grounds that an offence even occurred in order to initiate a more in-depth investigation. I can’t go and get documents pertaining to the offence if I don’t have reasonable grounds to believe that an offence actually occurred.”
Until then, it’s hard to determine whether or not the investigation will result in any charges.
“It could be dead in the water at that point, but we’re going to do whatever we can to investigate the complaint,” he noted.
As part of the investigation, Burgess will meet with local gas station owners to discuss how they set their gas prices.
“It’s often higher here than in Cold Lake, and it’s concerning, so we will look into it and see if there’s a reason behind that,” expressed Hillier, adding the RCMP are aware this is a concern shared by many residents.
