Winter is coming on rather rapidly this year, or so it seems.
Soon it will be required to "warm up" a vehicle prior to going anywhere. Just another additional cost for living in the north.
Natural gas is sure to qualify for an increase. Heating your home will take a good chunk out of your already spoken for income.
Hydro will not be far behind, and that increase should be substantial
Higher trucking costs will result in higher costs for goods, as transport increases will be taken into consideration. Want to keep eating the same-well do not expect to pay the same.
Interest rates should surely be eligible for a hike. Renewing a mortgage? That'll cost you!!!!
It is inevitable rents will have to move upward. Landlords have to cover all their additional expenses.
Taxi fares, bus rides, air travel, trains, ferries, all forms of transport-up up and away!!!!
Food delivery services will have to do an add on, so your pizza and chinese food will take a hike.
Taxes will go up. Costs much more to operate the city facilities and city hall.
I think you have the message by now!!!!!
Have you asked your boss for a "raise?"
Might be kind of risky right now! Bad mood, you know.

Screw the oil companys and Goverments.I hope someone has the guts to start a CIVIl WAR,Lets get rid of Stealing Corrupt Goverments and Companys.

How come we pay the same price as Vancouver and yet they are paying $.25 a liter for the Regional district and we are not? Should our regional district charge the same if we are going to pay the same at the pump anyways?

Also why not take the tax off the gasoline at the pump and add it to the raw barrel of oil so that exports can pay more of our fuel taxes? Why are we subsidizing Americans who pay less for gas than we do?

While it feels good to complain about gas prices and suggest such things like civil wars, there's very little we can do about it other than to drive a little less.

Easier said than done around here though...

RE:(Screw the oil companys and Goverments.I hope someone has the guts to start a CIVIl WAR,Lets get rid of Stealing Corrupt Goverments and Companys.)

Why does someone else always have to do something? we can talk all we want but when it comes down to it, what are we doing?

If the cost of living is going up then yeah we should be asking for a raise, and we should be a little more economical in how we live. Take a look out the car window when your driving tomorrow and tell me how many people you see carpooling.

I'm as furious as the next guy with regards to these prices, but I feel that I need to be a little more smart about it rather than saying "start a CIVIL WAR". How about you?

Here's a news flash for all of you businesspeople who are using the price of fuel as an excuse to raise your prices. People on fixed incomes will have less choices for their money. If prices keep rising people will not be dining out, taking in entertainment shows, driving on long holidays, etc. Not to mention not buying the latest car or clothing fads as advertized in the media. We will become stay at home people who make their own booze and heat with wood. Of course the government won't put up with that and will seek ways to tax homemade beer and firewood. How many extra billions will the government (both Feds & provincial) be making off of the price raises? We don't need a civil war Don, what we need is some honest politicians who care for the quality of life of Canadians.

Canada-land of plenty???/
No camoose, it is not that businesses want to raise their prices. It is a matter of survival , as they must cover their costs to avoid bankruptcy. In order to do so, they must take in the additional funds, as it is unlikely they can find the funds in any other manner.
When the city raises the taxes and fees, do we see a rally of citizens outside City Hall?? NO!! There is nary an out cry.
When businesses will be forced to increase prices, the talk around the kitchen table will be verbal attacking them to the extreme.
WHY do we allow any form of Government to "pick our pockets" at whim, and any form of explanation, if offered, is totally acceptable??? Yet we expect businesses to donate to our cause to support our lifestyle at their expense??? This is just not reasonable.
Stay at home drinking your home made wine and watching T V for entertainment, huddled in your blanket to keep warm, and do you think for one minute the governments will be grief stricken at your plight??? Never happen.Your lessening of a quality of life, to them, is of little, or no, consequence.
Do not blame the businesses when they are forced to increase their prices.
They also are fighting for survival.
It truly is, "Survival of the fittest."

Camoose you got.It's the only way we can fight prices and that is not to use the product. Oh yes do support our businessmen. They stand behind their counter and just keep punching their cash registers. They are the guys that have never feld a tree or gotten their hands dirty. Work to them is alien.
Our businessmen are the guys that get out and support the politicians that give us the poor legislation that we live by.
As consumers we need to unite and draw a line in the sand as to where we stand. Untill we do we will keep paying the prices that business ask.

Opatcho .....

Hopefully you realize that the guy who is paying the person for falling the tree is a businessperson. In fact, these days, the individual falling the tree may be an independent which does qualifies him or her for being called a business person.

I also assume that you know that the person behind the till is no different than the tree faller, except he or she gets considerably less for that work, and it is also considerably safer, of course. The businessperson, in that case as well, is the individual who pays the wage and takes the financial risk.

If you think it is so easy to be a so called business person, then why do you not set up your own business?

Of course, I could just as easily respond to you that it is typically parties on the left of the political spectrum who like to increase taxes and redistribute the money to tinker with the so-called “free marketplace” economy. So, I shudder to think what the tax on gasoline would be in this country would be if the NDP were in power federally; or the green party.

Then again, if they were, we may not be in this trouble of using our energy resources blindly.

Has this site turned into a whine, whine, whine, site??

We need some fresh blood in here IMHO.

Well owl I gave you some good ideas but you chose to tell me I was whining. But all you gave us was the old medince peddlers song and dance.
And no I have never been in business my conscience would bother me on markups made in the sale of my products and services just so that I could spend the cold winter months in a warmer climate.
You have a nice day.

Opatcho ....

no problem with the idea of not using a product or using less of it. I am all for it and do my share of that ....

The problem I have with your type of response (and you are by far not the only person to do so) is the attack on a whole sector of the economy and lumping them all together. The world would be a better place if people would resist doing that.

As far as your idea of a businessperson, it appears to be rather simplistic. I know plenty of people who are into business for themselves and take home what is left at the end of the month rather than paying themselves a salary. Most of them end up working for considerably less than if they were an employee, especially a unionized employee.

Take good olde Ben here, for instance. He is running this news blog. Do you think he is making enough money from it to retire to the south?

Which brings up another point. There is no way you will find me retiring to the south of anywhere. I grew up in this kind of climate and am not a whimp like those from lotusland. This is my retirement home and I will spend my money not only in Canada, but also in Prince George, not carry it down to some other part of the province or some foreign country.

Hope your weekend is a prosperous one.

News flash!!! Ben already bought property many many miles south of here, and I bet he is giving some serious thought to leaving Prince George. This place does not grow on everybody that lives here.
I would not want to see P G become a "retirement" centre. Retired people do not spend much money-most of them have everything they require already, and if not, they need every dime they receive by way of pension just to survive.
Either way retirees do not boost an economy. The well to do ones do not prefer to winter here anyhow, and the poor ones have no choice but to stay, and purchase only necessities for survival.
Oh well, they say 'Happiness is a state of mind." Hope that holds true when the first cold blast of winter befalls us!!!
I am still kind of wondering how I missed summer. Even the hummingbirds have left-smart birds!!!!

news??? ... you mean that place 426 miles south of here ..... in the middle of nowhere ???

I realize what you are talking about with retired people and little money to spend. However, that is somewhat of a fallacy.

Kelowna is a retirement community and has about 10 to 15 % less per person income than Prince George. Victoria and much of the Island is the same. All of those areas have more retail space per person than we do. Restaurants in those places are busy. So why is that?

Partly because after 25 years or less, many people have paid off their houses. Some have moved up in size during their earning years and may not have paid them off till they are 55 or 60. But, they have an asset. When they move from big city Canada, such as Toronto or Vancouver, they can often not only move into an new house without paying anything for accommodation other than tax and utilities, but they may even have money left over.

My parents have not earned a dime for 20 years now from working. However, they do have several pensions plus money from investments. They go out to eat frequently to middle to good quality restaurants, they hire people to do the gardening, cleaning house, buy clothes, toys, etc. for their grandchildren and give them money to help them buy a car, go to University, etc. etc.

Those retired people who took care of their money did not really have to earn a fortune while they were working. I would say without a doubt, my parents have had more money to spend during their retirement years than during their peak earning years. And I know quite as few people of that generation who are in a similar situation.

The one problem with old age pensioners is thsoe who belong to the snowbirds group since they take their money and spend a high percentage of it in another country. Some 20 years ago that was the main source of our trade deficit.