(Quebec) Canada’s Competition Bureau must investigate the gasoline market in the Quebec region, according to Energy Minister Pierre Fitzgibbon. Prices there are higher than in “almost all other regions of Quebec.”
This notice will be sent to the Competition Bureau to “help it in this investigation,” said Mr. Fitzgibbon, who is exceptionally summoning the bosses of the five main gasoline retailers in the Capitale-Nationale region — Couche-Tard, Pétroles Cadeko (subsidiary of Groupe F. Dufresne), Harnois Énergies, Costco Wholesale Canada and Sobeys. He wants explanations.
In its opinion, the Régie makes several observations. The estimated retail margins at gas stations in the Capitale-Nationale have been above the average for the rest of Quebec since 2021. They increased from 4.37 cents per liter in 2018 to nearly 15 cents per liter in 2023. Only “three regions had higher estimated retail margins, namely Nord-du-Québec, Côte-Nord and Bas-Saint-Laurent.”
Technically, Quebec could intervene: the minister has the power to set a ceiling price on the sale of gasoline. But Mr. Fitzgibbon closes the door on this method. “Setting a ceiling price, well, technically, everyone goes to the ceiling, so I’m not going to play every day on the price, that’s not the job I came to do then it is not up to the government either, I think, to legislate, but the government, on the other hand, must take into account the population who were angry,” he said.
Mr. Fitzgibbon points to the fact that there is a greater concentration of the gasoline market in the National Capital Region. “The market share held by the five main players in gasoline retailing in the National Capital has gained ten percentage points since 2019, to stand at 84% of sales volumes in 2022. In the rest of Quebec, the five main players account for 70% of sales volumes,” writes his firm.
But once again, he doesn’t really see how he can intervene. “So, well, out of five petroleries, they have 85%, is that too much? That’s the question. It is not up to the government to say: we are going to have a sixth gasoline plant coming. You know, we can’t play in that flowerbed,” he explained.
In the future, Mr. Fitzgibbon also hopes that the Régie de l’énergie, “which publishes the margins of gas stations every Friday in its Information Bulletin on the prices of petroleum products, will make it easier to locate this information for all Quebec “.
