Present Developments: The Boycott and Why...

Oct. 8/1999 : Mines & Energy Minister Roger Grimes is looking at having the oil companies explain their reasoning for any fuel price increases to the Government Monitor, the monitor then announcing any intended increases in price publicly.
We find that this will only do the "job that the oil companies should have been doing in the first place."
See our press release tomorrow for some new developments.

July 21/1999 : "Petro Canada's net earnings UP 150% over previous quarter."
"Ontario Government is considering placing a FREEZE on the rapidly rising gas price."
Both from the Telegram wed, July 21/1999)

July 15/1999: Meeting of the Consumers Group for Fair Gas Prices met at City Hall to discuss the latest increase of 8 cents/litre & the eventual settlement of a 5 cent/litre increase.
All members felt that "Consumer Action" was needed and that at 2:30pm that same afternoon, the boycott was announced.

July 14/1999 7am this morning saw an attempt by Petro-Canada and Irving Oil to raise our local gas price here to 71.9 cents/ litre. Again we found it absolutely amazing that we would have to again put up with arrogant and unjustified prices at the pumps. Imperial and Ultramar settled as 68.9 cents/litre but it was too late for Petro Canada and Irving oil to get out. Consumers who asked for a boycott in early May, now demanded action. We had no recourse after exhausting all other ways of trying to get an "Honest & Fair Price". We would put the onus on the consumer to "Voluntarily Boycott" Petro Canada & Irving.

May 04/1999 : After receiving an earlier gas increase of 4 cents/litre, on Tues. May 04/1999 consumers were faced with an additional 3 cents/litre on gas. Amazing! I reffered to it as "A slap in the face to consumers" who earlier participated in the "Gas Out". This increase was led by Petro-Canada, alledgedly owned 18% by you and me. Irving Oil closely followed. This brings us to Wednesday July 14/1999 and Thursday July 15/1999.

April 30/1999 : As we know, we participated in a National "Gas Out" which was meant to draw attention to the problem of "Unfair Gas Pricing" policies.
We feel that this was marginally sucessful in that most of our contacts reported a 35% increase in sales the day previous to the "Gas Out" as well as a 20% increase for the day following.

"Gas Out" day was about 60% successful in that we had very little time to get to the public to let them participate.

At this time, also, as a committee member, feeling that there is a National Consumer unrest, we ask you wherever you are in Canada, to ban these two Oil companies and their products until we see "solutions" brought to bear.
We ask you, your consumer group, to join us and let us know of action in your area.
You may contact us at gasprices@hotmail.com
or click HERE to send us a message.
Also, we are planning to implement a forum(message board) here, in the future, for your Q & A
E-mail has been sent to media accross Canada and we hope this will have the desired impact.

George Murphy Committee Member