Tuesday, March 21, 2000 Feds fuel $750Gs gas probe Think tank hired

By JAMES WALLACE AND ANNE DAWSON, TORONTO SUN Ottawa is paying a national think tank $750,000 to ponder high gas prices.

Ontario Consumer Minister Bob Runciman suggested the federal Liberals were a "little late to the party" after months of escalating gas prices.

The Conference Board of Canada will spend the next nine months on an exhaustive study intended to "give Canadians a better understanding of how domestic retail and wholesale gasoline markets work."

But Industry Minister John Manley and Natural Resources Minister Ralph Goodale's announcement yesterday that they've hired the Conference Board to launch yet another study into ever-increasing gas and diesel prices drew criticism.

Although the matter has been studied to death over the years -- most recently by the Competition Bureau, a federal Liberal task force and an Ontario Tory task force -- Manley insists his study will be much broader.

Besides, Manley said, he's fed up with "experts on the industry," like Premier Mike Harris spouting off on the subject without having the facts.

But the Canadian Automobile Association said another study will do nothing to help drivers who are paying through the nose to fill up their vehicles. A litre of gas currently costs more than 70 cents, of which 30 cents is tax.

And the study won't be completed until next January, after which it will take time for the feds to come up with a response.

The board will look at the relationship between crude oil and pump prices, price volatility, competition, as well as regulatory and trade factors affecting gas prices.

"They had committed to doing something like this last year, then withdrew in the fall of 2000," Runciman said. "Now they're reacting to not only our province but I think a lot of other governments in the western world that have been very vigorously lobbying oil producing nations to affect their production rates."

The Conference Board, an independent, not-for-profit research institution, won't recommend legislative or policy changes.

http://www.canoe.ca/TorontoNews/ts.ts-03-21-0004.html

-- Martin Thompson (mthom1927@aol.com), March 21, 2000