Whereas in November of 2019 the BC government introduced the Fuel Price Transparency Act to help bring transparency to transportation fuel pricing in the province; And whereas resulting BC Utilities Commission studies and data collection has found higher retail markup margins in specific rural markets, such as in March 2022 the BC Utilities Commissions Exploration Project 3, Retail Margins and Price Factors for Select cities including Golden, Revelstoke, Powell River, Sicamous, Whistler and Squamish, as well as stations in nearby cities found that sampled gas stations in those markets appeared to earn higher margins on each litre of gasoline sold than the sampled retail stations in Metro Vancouver and the BC average; And whereas consumers in these and other rural markets often pay more per litre for transportation fuels such as gasoline and diesel than consumers in Metro Vancouver where there is an additional 18.5 cents per litre TransLink tax: Therefore be it resolved that UBCM ask the BC government to follow through with legislative andor regulatory action that will provide relief to consumers in rural BC fuel markets that experience chronic unexplained retail transportation fuel markups and higher than average transportation fuel prices.
