You are not fooled, gas has not been systematically more expensive on the island of Montreal than elsewhere for the past few months.
Posted at 6:00 a.m.
A trend seems to be taking root, according to a compilation made by The Press based on weekly data from the Régie de l’énergie du Québec. “Your observation also corresponds to the observations of CAA-Quebec, notes spokesperson Annie-Pier Dubois by email. For the past few months, the price displayed at the pump in Montreal has been lower than the Quebec average. »
Since January 2019, people have been paying an average of 3.3¢ more in Montreal than in Quebec as a whole, i.e. 132.1¢ instead of 128.9¢ [NDLR : les données sont arrondies]. This average calculated over the whole of this period, however, conceals large weekly variations.
Before the spring of 2022, it had happened six times in three years that the average weekly price of gasoline in Montreal had fallen below the Quebec average. Since last April, in less than three months, this pleasant surprise has occurred seven times.
A single surcharge
This is all the more surprising given that, in the greater Montreal area, a special gas tax has been paid since 1996. Initially set at 1.5¢ per litre, it was doubled to 3¢ per liter in 2010 to finance the Metropolitan Transport Agency, which became the Regional Metropolitan Transport Authority (ARTM) in 2017.
This 3¢ surcharge for the 83 municipalities in the ARTM territory, to which consumption taxes are added, would explain the average historical difference between prices in the metropolitan area and those in the rest of Quebec.
This fact should not be forgotten. Conversely, in Quebec there are tax rebates of 4.65 cents for regions such as Saguenay–Lac-Saint-Jean or Abitibi-Témiscamingue.
Sonia Marcotte, CEO of the Association of Quebec Energy Distributors (ADEQ)
The island of Montreal is not the territory in Quebec where gasoline is the most expensive. According to the average established since 2019, it is in Nord-du-Québec and in the Gaspésie–Îles-de-la-Madeleine region that we have to pay the most. At the other end of the spectrum, the price per liter is lowest in Saguenay–Lac-Saint-Jean and Outaouais.
According to Annie-Pier Dubois, of CAA-Quebec, the 3¢ gas tax does not explain everything, in particular the gap between Montreal and its 82 neighbors within the ARTM, from Contrecœur to Saint-Lazare and from Saint-Jérôme to Carignan.
“Before the last few months, service stations in the Montreal region charged a higher retail margin than in several other regions of Quebec, which meant that the price displayed at the pump was higher,” says- she. According to CAA-Quebec, the “realistic” price at the pump in Montreal should be even lower, at 192.7¢ rather than 202.0¢, as noted on Friday.
Turbulences and adjustments
This explanation is however contradicted by the ADEQ, where since 2019 the profit margins of retailers in the three major Canadian cities have been compared. This margin was 5.5¢ in Montreal in 2019, 8¢ in Toronto and 11.6¢ in Vancouver. For the first six months of 2022, the gap narrowed, but Montreal retailers still had the smallest profit margin, at 7¢, compared to 7.8¢ in Toronto and 8.1¢ in Vancouver.
“We see that Montreal has a margin that is thinner than in other big cities, says Mme Marcotte. There is competition in Montreal as everywhere. »
How to explain that the average price of gasoline in Montreal falls below the Quebec average? For the three experts interviewed, it is primarily an impact of the turbulence that has shaken the world oil market since the invasion of Ukraine.
In general, during periods of strong increases such as the last four months, the markets struggle to follow the trend. As a result, historical differences no longer hold water.
Carol Montreuil, Vice President of the Canadian Fuels Association
It is above all the variation in prices at the refinery that upsets the market and which is reflected in the price at the pump, analyzes Mme Marcotte. “I’ve never seen that, it’s with 2 or 3¢ daily variations. »
As retailers and brands sell larger quantities of gasoline in the metropolis than in smaller markets, she believes that adjustments are made more quickly.
“In Montreal, the market is bigger, there is more population, there is faster inventory turnover than in other regions. Price reactions are faster. »