Surprise increases of nearly 15% in the price of gasoline at the pump in less than 24 hours are sowing anger in Saint-Hyacinthe, where motorists go so far as to point the finger at the Quebec giant Couche-Tard.
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“In Saint-Hyacinthe, last Monday, the whole city was at $1.479 per liter and the next morning, the liter had risen to $1.699 at Ultramar de Couche-Tard, and in all Couche-Tard stations”, is surprised Gabriel Chartier, a local retiree, who has been scrutinizing prices for ages.
This is an increase of 22 cents, or almost 15%, in less than 24 hours. Supporting photos, Gabriel Chartier denounced this situation to the Journal.
“Every week, Couche-Tard is always the first to raise prices in town,” says the former owner of Saint-Hyacinthe airport.
“It’s unusual”
In recent years, local stations that have come under the control of Couche-Tard’s red owl have been more greedy, he argues.
Beside him, in a snack bar, between two sips of coffee, his friends were going in the same direction as him earlier in the week. They feel like Couche-Tard, across the street, is running the show.
“It doesn’t make sense. It’s not normal for prices to change in the same way, ”breathed one of them.
“It’s unusual for changes of this magnitude. Obviously here, these are changes in the distribution margin,” said Jean-Thomas Bernard, visiting professor in the Department of Economics at the University of Ottawa. (see other text on the left for the evolution of the margins).
According to him, “there is always a kind of leader” who will test the market depending on the region. “If it’s too strong, the others won’t follow”, observes the expert.
“In general, the price goes down slowly. Then there are leaps that are more visible and that motorists feel all of a sudden, ”notes the director of the Association for the Protection of Motorists (APA), George Iny.
At CAA-Quebec, it is mentioned that at $1.479 per litre, it was a very good price because the acquisition cost last Tuesday was $1.53 per liter in Montérégie.
“The industry is not used to giving gifts to motorists and when such a situation arises, a significant increase in the price at the pump cannot be ruled out,” warns Andrée-Anne Déry, spokesperson for CAA. -Quebec.
$6 million in fines
At the Competition Bureau, we refuse to provide information on the investigations in progress, but we would like to remind you that the organization has already cracked down.
Over the past fifteen years, 33 individuals and a dozen companies “have pleaded guilty or been found guilty of fixing gas prices in Ontario and Quebec,” it says.
“This led to more than $6 million in fines, jail sentences totaling 54 months and a total of 300 hours of community service,” said spokesperson Sarah Brown.
“It is illegal for gas stations to agree to set the price of gasoline,” she continues.
Incidentally, it invites customers and even employees of companies who have information concerning possible illegal agreements with their competitors to report the situation to the Competition Bureau.
Couche-Tard radio silence
Despite several reminders in recent days, Couche-Tard did not respond to questions from the Journal.
Esso recalled that it sold its retail sites in 2016 and that it was the operators who determined the price of fuel at the stations.
Ultramar passed the buck to the Canadian Fuels Association (CCA), which declined our interview request.
On January 10, a class action by the Automobile Protection Association (APA) resulted in the delivery of a $25 gas discount to customers in Thetford Mines, Victoriaville, Sherbrooke and Magog.