Prices not high enough!

Fri, September 2, 2005

Prices not high enough!

By EARL McRAE

Look, stop all the whimpering and whining about gas prices, okay?

Truth is, you've been spoiled rotten for years relative to what most of the rest of the world's been paying at the pumps.

Let the prices keep climbing -- they bode terrifically for our environment, physical fitness, and health costs if they result in all you drivers who don't really need to drive (one hell of a lot of you) taking to your feet or bicycles or public transportation.

You think you have it bad at the pumps, you who are wondering how you're ever going to be able to afford the gas you need to drive the one block from where you live to the convenience store to buy your bag of Doritos and large Pepsi?

Current prices per litre in Canadian dollars

Holland (Amsterdam): $1.99

Italy (Rome): $1.83

England (London): $1.79

Germany (Frankfurt): $1.67

Japan (Tokyo): $1.48

Consumers in these countries, and many others, have been paying for years prices far in excess of what Canadians were paying and accepting it as just the way it is.

If all you gas-price mewlers and moaners don't like the prices at the pumps, move to Venezuela on a Canadian salary. Current price there -- 4c a litre. Or Egypt: 19c. Or Kuwait: 22c. Or Saudi Arabia: 29c. Or China: 55c. Or Russia: 62c.

My friend David Cobb, car aficionado, ex-Brit, has been telling me for years that we live in a soft, comfy dreamworld when it comes to gas prices, and going back to when prices were a lot lower than they are now.

David, do you still hold those views?

"It's high time we started paying more," he says, "and more than high time for the hockey/supermarket moms to stop poncing about in their monstrous Avalanches and Yukons which might deliver eight or 10 miles to the gallon in and around the city.

"Even if the price goes to $1.50 a litre, it's less than we were paying in real dollars in the energy crunch of 1980. And if we'd been paying more, and earlier, we might be getting some of the excellent last-for-bloody-ever high-performance diesels that three out of four drivers use in Europe.

"All that said, it is a gouging outrage that all the fuel dispensers have upped their prices -- instantly -- across the board, post-Katrina, when there are thousands of litres still available, either underground or at the local station, or in their own massive storage tanks, at their old prices. There can be no justification for screwing us by hiding under the banner of suddenly increased costs. Not yet."

I phone Bob Hicks, lean, fit, racing events director of the Ottawa Bicycling Club, 1,300 members (racing and recreation) and ask him if the greater good that can come out of the soaring gas prices -- trumping the bitching -- would be the dumping of vehicles in favour of feet, bikes, and buses.

"I don't want to sound like a biking zealot, because I'm not, but my wife Jane and I drive only about 15,000 km a year, which is very little compared to most people who feel they have to use their vehicles for almost everything. Two weeks ago, I filled up my gas tank, and I still have half-a-tank.

"I walk as much as I can, and if I go on business around town I'll use my beater bike. In terms of recreation, I use that bike almost exclusively. I'll do from 8,000 to 10,000 km a year on it. With a lot of people, riding a bike would be good for them, but walking an even better alternative.

"As a cyclist, fewer cars on the road would be better for me, and there's no question that if people drove less, it'd be great for their health and the environment."

True, but will the present gas prices that are making spoiled Canadian drivers fit to be tied lead to a lot less driving, even the abandonment of vehicles?

Probably not.

Bob Hicks: "Oh, they'll whine for awhile, and then stop and accept it."

Right.

Just like they'll whine that the federal Liberals are a bunch of taxpayer-screwing bums who need to be drop-kicked into oblivion, and then forgive, forget, and vote them back into office.

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