BY BILL BRADLEY
?People are really getting peeved at the price of gas,? said Timmins-James Bay NDP Transportation Critic Gilles Bisson. He held a press conference to
launch his province-wide Pump Shock Tour, at Byrnes Gulf Station in Azilda, Thursday afternoon.
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NDP Transportation Critic Gilles Bisson is seeking public support for two new private member bills addressing the skyrocketing gas prices. |
Bisson had single mother Lisa Reed and 598 Union president Rick Grylls with him.
?With gas prices so high, it takes away from what health care workers like myself can take home every week,? said Lisa Reed, a dietary aide worker at St. Joseph Villa on Ramsey Lake Rd.
Reed says health-care providers are mainly female. Many are single mothers, and they are being hit hard by rising gas prices.
?These gas prices affect our families, our children. You have to re-budget and change your whole lifestyle. I have a little car that already is good on gas but I pay $40-$50 to fill up and I burn a tank-and-a-half a week,? she said.
Rick Grylls, president of the Mine Mill Local 598/CAW Union, says the gas increases are hitting lower paid workers, retirees and even causing higher paid workers to change their spending habits.
?We have some of our workers in lower paying contracts and this increase in gas does hurt their budgets. We also have 2,100 retirees and their widows and they tell us they are suffering from these high prices,? said Grylls.
?Long time Falconbridge workers may be buffered by their good wages, but what happens is they cut back on entertainment, for example. That affects businesses and those who work in them.?
Bisson says what irks people is the unfairness of the gas pricing system.
?People understand that the price of oil per barrel has gone up, but why is there such a price difference of as much as 15-20 cents a litre from one end of the province to another? After all I pay the same for a case of beer in Toronto as I do in Timmins - what?s going on?? said Bisson.
?The other thing that really upsets people is the volatility of the price. They see the price of oil per barrel go down but no equivalent reduction in price at the gas pump. Sometimes the price even goes up,? he said.
Bisson recommends a gas price freeze, something the Conservative government of Bill Davis enacted in the 1970s. Bisson says the current Liberal government has not kept its promises on gas price relief.
Bisson has introduced two private member bills. Bill 74, The Keep Your Promises at the Pump Act, calls for a freeze on the price of gasoline for 90 days. Bill 93, The Keep Your Promise on the Gas Price Watchdog Act, establishes a regulatory body to monitor gas price.
Bisson is also asking the public outrage about gas pricing to turn into public support for his campaign.
?Get involved. Call your local member of parliament. Remind them that promises were made by the Liberals while in opposition to lower gas prices, force retailers to advertise price increases 72 hours in advance and set up a Gas Price Watchdog,? he said.
In addition, Bisson is asking people to complain about the gas prices at his website, www.ontariondp.com/pumpshock.
?Tell your stories about the hardships you are facing and we will use them in the legislature when it resumes later this fall,? he said.
Bisson also recommended the Liberals get moving on getting Ontario into alternative fuels like ethanol and biodiesel.
?That reduces the province?s dependency on foreign and Alberta oil. That helps support our farmers too, even those in northern Ontario, who can grow the fuel crops like canola.?
