2023-09-10 20:41:00
The Minister of Economy, Innovation and Energy, Pierre Fitzgibbon, is asking the Régie de l’énergie to look into the profit margins earned by service stations in the greater Quebec region.
The minister believes that there is a notable gap between the margins earned by retailers in Quebec and the Chaudière-Appalaches region compared to other regions.
The variation in prices between this year and previous years is worrying. We also compared the margins in Quebec and Chaudière-Appalaches with those of other regions and the gap is significant, he indicated in a press release sent late Friday afternoon. I want the Régie to shed light on these figures.
Between January and June, Quebec gasoline retailers generated average profit margins of approximately 9.7 cents on each liter of gasoline purchased at the pump, according to the Régie.
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Minister Fitzgibbon believes that there is a notable gap between the margins earned by retailers in Quebec and the Chaudière-Appalaches region compared to other regions.
Photo : Radio-Canada / Félix Morrissette Beaulieu
During this period, retailers in the greater Quebec City region earned 4 cents more profit per liter than the provincial average.
In Quebec on Sunday, the price of a liter of gasoline was around 1.80 per liter, according to the GasBuddy platform.
For comparison, it is 20 cents more expensive than in Saguenay and 9 cents more than in several Montreal gas stations.
Average profit margin of gas stations between January and June 2023
RegionProfit marginCapitale-Nationale15.2¢ per literChaudière-Appalaches13.9¢ per literAll of Quebec9.7¢ per liter
Source: Régie de l’énergie du Québec
CAA Quebec welcomes the Minister’s announcement
These are incongruities that have been observed for several months, even [plusieurs] years, CAA Quebec in the national capital, notes spokesperson Andrée-Ann Déry.
We have also made numerous outings in the media, she adds. We wrote to the Régie ourselves [de l’énergie]to Minister Fitzgibbon as well as to Minister [Jonatan] Julien, no later than August 18, asking that the Régie take a closer look at this situation.
Minister Pierre Fitzgibbon’s announcement is therefore timely in the eyes of the CAA Quebec organization.
Is this [que les instances au pouvoir] will get the same observations as us? It’s possible, believes Ms. Déry.
What we want, in the end, is better competition [en matière de] price in Quebec, adds the spokesperson. We also want retail margins that are reasonable, because in the end, it is motorists who pay the price.
“The end of the story”
We have tools like the Federal Competition Bureau, which will look into competition, but [il y a] also the Régie de l’énergie du Québec, where we are more in the profit margin, said Samuel Poulin, CAQ MP for Beauce-Sud, in an interview with Radio-Canada, saying he was very happy to have worked on this issue -there.
We use all the tools at our disposal to get to the bottom of the story.
At the end of the day, what we want is to pay our fair share [prix pour] gasoline, dropped the chosen one.
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Samuel Poulin, provincial deputy for Beauce-Sud. (Archive photo)
Photo: Radio-Canada / Tifa Bourjouane
In Jonquière, during our caucus [des députés de la Coalition avenir Québec]we were at $1.60 [le litre], he said. In Beauce, we were at […] $1.82! That’s 22 cents difference!
It is for this reason, he said, that the government is asking the Régie de l’énergie to look into this.
Limited scope
Is this an approach simply to demonstrate [que le ministre Fitzgibbon] moves or does something? quips Patrick Gonzalez, associate professor in the economics department at Laval University.
In an interview with Radio-Canada, he said he believes that the reach of the Régie de l’énergie in such a matter is rather limited, especially since there is not a legion of people working on the price of energy. essence within this organism.
What could the minister do if the Régie came to the conclusion that the cost of gasoline is indeed higher in Quebec and Chaudière-Appalaches than elsewhere in Quebec?
Not much, believes the expert. The margins are determined in relation to assessments by the Régie itself. So it’s the Régie that determines what it should cost. […] pour [exploiter] A gas station.
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Patrick Gonzalez, associate professor in the economics department at Laval University. (Archive photo)
Photo : Radio-Canada
Should the Competition Bureau, at the federal level, focus on this problem?
The fact that the price of gasoline is very high in a region, […] This does not require intervention by regulatory authorities in matters of competition.
The Competition Bureau will intervene if there are illegal practices, insists Mr. Gonzalez. Illegal practices would be […] to set prices.
In the absence of collusion, and this is what is at stake behind this, we allow companies to make profits in all markets, and in the gasoline market in particular, says -he. It is entirely possible that it pays to sell expensive gasoline in Chaudière-Appalaches and that this does not justify intervention by the Competition Bureau.
In itself, it would not be illegal, he says.
You may like it or not like it, but that’s how the economic system works.
“What would be illegal is what we have already seen in the past, several years ago, [en Estrie]where we could demonstrate that there had been collusion, that the retailers were talking to each other to set the price higher,” he says.
However, if it is not impossible, it is very difficult to demonstrate, he warns. These are long investigations.
With information from Félix Morrissette Beaulieu
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