MAR-O

(John Weingust, President of MAR-O - photo: Louie Palu/The Globe and Mail)

As an activist for motorists, I have for years fought the City of Toronto on its policy of parking violations, which I believe, has been used for the prime purpose of obtaining revenue and not for regulating traffic as a whole. I have now turned my attention to the price we pay for gas at gas stations, which I believe, to be a rip-off. There are two evils in the world. One is violence, and the other is greed. The epitome of greed was recently witnessed when the gas stations in Greater Toronto raised the price of gas from the already exorbitant price of $1.20 per litre to $1.22 over the weekend when the TTC workers suddenly went on strike without notice. The oil industry has been talking of the price of gas going higher this summer, even though there is no shortage of oil in the world. The price of oil today is not governed by supply and demand, and the fact is that investment speculation is the largest component of increased oil prices. Even more shocking, “the CIBC World Markets predicted that crude oil prices would soar to more than 200 (U.S.) a barrel over the next five years. That would mean a single fill-up, at $2.25 per litre, would cost more than $100.00 for an economy car like the Honda Fit or Toyota Yaris” (Globe Auto – May 1, 2008).

The oil industry is free to raise its price on any whim or excuse, such as blaming a refinery breakdown in any country in the world, and get away with it. The fact is that the oil industry controls the distribution of gasoline by refusing to build more refineries, which would increase the distribution, or by limiting production on its existing refineries. Here we have a product, which is affecting our environment and economy of the world, and our governments have failed to do anything about it. And why would they, and when our Canadian government derives huge revenue from its taxes on gas. They are not about to kill the golden goose. They rather “kill” the consumer. In fact, the Canadian Federal Government received 5 billion dollars in tax revenue from the sale of gas in 2006-2007. Furthermore, our Federal Government is putting billions of dollars into the tar sands in Alberta, and the only people who will benefit from this project is Alberta and the oil industry. And no doubt the price of gas will further rise to make up for the cost of this questionable project.

As motorists, we have no protection to fight rising and exorbitant gas prices. The Competition Bureau of Canada, which is supposed to protect the public from price fixing and gouging, will do nothing, and its existence is basically a farce, as it has no real power to do anything although they have witnessed over the years the rising price of gas being sold at the same price at every station, and changing prices in unison everyday or every hour. The Consumer Protection Act is another useless piece of legislation, and motorists feel helpless by throwing up their hands and saying “But what can we do?”

I have now started an organization called MAR-O (Motorists Against Rip-Offs), which I hope will try to stop the gouging of motorists, and its prime object at this time is to fight the oil industry in its pursuit of greed. MAR-O wants to launch a campaign of boycott against one station for the month of June 2008, as this is the only weapon that motorists have. A boycott will work if the majority of motorists adopt this plan. MAR-O has decided to choose Esso Stations as the station to boycott, because they operate through Exxon Mobil, who made $40 billion in profit last year (after taxes), and did not pass on one penny to its consumers by lowering prices. While motorists will still have to pay the existing high price of gas from the other stations, they can strike a blow to the Esso Corporation, and force them to reduce their gas prices substantially, or the boycott will continue. I believe that a boycott will be successful, and the motorist has nothing to lose by adopting this strategy. But motorists have to be unified and determined for the strategy to work.

John Weingust
President of MAR-O
MAR-O
481 University Avenue
10^th Floor
Toronto, Ontario
M5G 2E9

Email: j.weingust@bellnet.ca