All I can say is WHY??

just checked crude oil prices down $1.18 to $61.32 US a barrel

All I can say is What the $$$$ ?

It's probably an easy way to make money to pour into the 2010 Olympics money pit.

And both governments condone it as they get the tax money on it all...
Crude prices have gone from about$71.oo to $61 and the price of fuel at the pumps from .999 to $117.9...so somewhere someone is raking it in....and i don't buy their story of fuel inventory shortage either.

Prices at the pump should reflect what the oil prices were 6 months ago - not today. Did the oil get refined and shipped to the service station last night - it makes no sense. Just a monopoly by the oil companies and the government.

Let us build our own refinery and let anyone pay what they figure is fair. The shareholders ought to like that.

Oil barons and politicians have been in bed together forever.That will not change anytime soon.
The higher the price,the more oil companies make,and the more our governments make.
Federal and provincial.
They like that part, so don't be looking to our fearless leaders for much help.
So what can be done?
Not much.
Make as much noise as possible.Get all over your MP,MLA,and anyone else connected with them.
Email,phone,write,drive 'em nuts!Remind them there will be an election coming.
And their secretaries too!
Be a royal pain in the ass!
What good will it do?
Not much.
But you will feel better and you never know,you might at least be able to make them miserable for a while.
That's about the best you can hope for.
And remember,here in B.C.?? These are the same guy's who think they deserve a 29% raise.
Ya right!
So how much are you getting?

Vancouver pays a transit tax of 6 cent.

IMO we are all slaves to the oil companies.

Big oil companies will charge what ever they want and we will pay. What else can you do with a no competition commodity, they own it all. Pay, pay it doesn't matter there were no hurricanes this year and the barrel is cheaper by over $10.00 this time last year. Hike up the price what are you going to do about it?

The Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives (CCPA) examined gasoline prices before and after Hurricane Katrina and found an unjustified hike in prices after the disaster.

"There's absolutely no doubt in my mind that we're paying far too much at this point for gasoline," Hugh Mackenzie, an economist and researcher with the group, told Canada AM on Thursday.

"There's no doubt in my mind that we're dealing with an industry that has the market power to charge what the market will bear."

Mackenzie said there was a psychological barrier in Canada about paying more than $1 a litre for gasoline. But, after Katrina, the psychological factor was broken and exploited by gas companies.

The report found that motorists are being overcharged at the pumps for as much as 15 cents a litre in Toronto to as much as 27 cents a litre in Vancouver.

"The crude oil that ends up in our tanks today doesn't cost one cent more to produce today than it did in 2001 when the pump price was less than 60 cents a litre,'' the report says.

"And the windfall for Canadian producers amounts to $1.7 million every day for every dollar the price of crude goes up.''

Tony Macerollo of the Canadian Petroleum Products Institute, rejected the study, saying there are a number of justifiable reasons for the price increases.

He told The Canadian Press that increased demand, speculation and the fact that many North American oil refineries postponed upgrades in the wake of Katrina are factors in the price hike.

But Liberal MP Dan McTeague said the government is not doing enough to regulate the industry. He's calling for an independent body to be put in place to monitor gasoline prices.

"If a group of people want to push the price of gasoline beyond what is realistic, there's no one in Canada there to stop them,'' he told CP.

Using Mackenzie's calculations, the CCPA has posted an online gasoline price gouge calculator for consumers to figure out how much they're being overcharged.

Here's how much drivers across the country were being overcharged as of May 8, 2007:

Halifax 0.194
Saint John 0.146
St. John's 0.163
Charlottetown 0.185
Montreal 0.136
Québec 0.190
Sherbrooke 0.185
Chicoutimi 0.152
Toronto 0.151
Ottawa 0.141
Sudbury 0.215
London 0.150
Winnipeg 0.209
Regina 0.218
Lethbridge 0.192
Edmonton 0.182
Kamloops 0.210
Prince George 0.204
Victoria 0.254
Vancouver 0.272