| You are right on the "tax thing", Manny. The AVERAGE price for a litre of gasoline across Canada at the moment is $0.94. With an exchange rage of... .81? that's $0.769 US per litre. And with 3.8 litres per US Gallon, we're paying the equivalent of $2.89 per gallon AVERAGE. Some places higher, some places lower. Better leave that 34' motor home "at home" this year (finally it costs as much to fill up the motor home as it does the yacht...... wait... the yacht still costs more! "TIME TO EBAY THE YACHT, MARTHA"
It is taxes though. Everybody is paying the same for that barrel of oil and everybody is paying the same for the services of the refiners. (a recent newspaper article up here blamed the refiners and shortage of refinery capacity for the high prices... claiming that the retailers still have the same "margin"..... so why are some local stations at .929 and others only located a few kilometers away at .849? Riddle me that one!
Here is a quote from the Canadian Automobile Association website:
"Q. How much of the price of gasoline am I paying in taxes?
A. That depends on where you live in Canada and where you buy your gasoline. Taxes are usually responsible for the largest component of gasoline prices. On average, Canadian taxes represent 40 to 50 per cent of what you pay at the pumps.
The federal portion consists of the excise tax, which is 10 cents per litre. In addition, the Goods and Services Tax, which is 7 per cent, is added to the total pump price, and is effectively a tax on tax. (In the Atlantic, the GST is represented as a portion of the Harmonized Sales Tax.)
The provincial tax portion varies from province to province. Provincial taxes range from 6.2 cent per litre in the Yukon to 16.5 cents in Newfoundland and Labrador. In some urban centers, such as Vancouver and Montreal, an additional transit tax is levied.
Find out more about how what makes up the price of gasoline here. "
Did you get that? 40 to 50% of the retail price!?
On another statement you made.. you are absolutely corect with your comment to the Prius and other hybrid vehicles. In a recent interview Toyota and Honda executives admitted as much. Their logic for pushing the vehicles is that it keeps their name at the forefront of the consumers' thoughts when it comes time to (and it eventually will) purchase some mode of transport that doesn't use as much fuel as the current crop of SUVs (which are declining in sales, much to the dismay of the Big Three).
In this interview they admitted that it would take 10 YEARS of "average" driving to obtain the payback necessary to justify the initial capital cost of a hybrid. (When most companies want a payback period of two years OR LESS for capital investments).
Again... National Geographic. This month's issue just arrived this morning in the mailbox and in it?..... yup; an article on declining petroleum sources and the various options available. (How DO they do that?) |