Victory last week on the tax off heat
What's for this week, I wonder?

Sorry I haven't been around for a bit.

Out doing the door to door thing, and loving it, of course!

I hope that everyone out there is going to get out and vote. Remember that you alone can sometimes effect change, and it's a change we'll all be looking at if the polls are any indication.

Anyway, here's what I have for this week, with six days reporting. My gasoline number may be off slightly because of a lost day of data at the start of the session, so that number is reflective of five days of data:

• Stove and heating oils show a drop of 1.01 cents per litre (remember the kerosene!)
• Diesel shows a drop of 9/10ths of a cent, and ...
• Gasoline shows an added half cent at this point.

That's it for tonight!...

I'll be back tomorrow night, probably later than usual because of the door knocking thing. I hope I can be forgiven for promoting the "5% off heat" agenda! After all, it was fourteen years between successes in getting provincial taxes off heat, I figured that I'd get the early start on the federal tax off heat!...

Any questions, be sure to drop me a note!

Regards,

George

The claim of victory!

We're halfway there!

As Danny Williams, and now Lorraine Michael said, "We got it!"

Sounds familiar, right?

Today, after being in the budget lock-down, and finding out that the tax had been removed, at least on a provincial level, I had to breathe a sigh of relief that the mission was halfway there.

Why?

Because in today's budget "We got it!" too...

As of October, the provincial portion of the HST will no longer be collected from your heat bill. It was a long, hard haul to this payday, but I am proud to say that the petition drive provincially is now cancelled and we'll start to work on getting that 5 percent removed from heat on a federal level.

Thanks to everyone who participated, especially those who remember signing the petition from our consumer group, and working for the group, all those years ago as well.

"We got it!"....

Never let a dream die, folks!

To add to today's victory for consumers here, there will still be a rebate program for those who need it most; those who will still find it hard to make ends meet. That's the part that Lorraine Michael worked so hard on to maintain, so, a big thanks to her for that!

I'll be back later tonight with another update on where prices will be going for this week's price change.

Regards,

George

A time for action...

"Whereas; the high cost of energy is proving to be a hardship on the people of the province of Newfoundland and Labrador, and...

whereas; heat is a basic necessity of life and a lack of heat is a health concern,...

we, the undersigned residents of the province of Newfoundland and Labrador hereby urge the House of Assembly to ask the government of Newfoundland and Labrador to remove the provincial portion of the HST from all forms of heat"...

Hi to all...

Ten years ago, on March 28, 2001 our consumer group presented a petition to the House of Assembly requesting that the government of the day remove the tax on heat. Some 55, 000 consumers and residents of the province signed the petition to remove the tax, with those signatures being gathered over a period covering three weekends.

It was one of the largest petitions presented in the House of Assembly up to that point.

All three political parties spoke to the tax on this necessity of life with the governing liberals keeping the tax in place, as they would suffer a loss in revenue, and the conservatives promising to remove the tax if they ever formed the government.

How times have changed!

For the past seven years since the conservatives have formed government, and again on Tuesday, this government will again tell the people of the province of a burgeoning surplus all from improving oil royalties. We will be told that the province’s coffers are again, overflowing with the benefits of added oil revenue.A small part of that reason will also be due to the fact that, with the failure of the government to remove the tax on heat all those years ago, several million of that surplus may very well be because someone in this province had to make a choice between heat and food.

Again, on the tenth anniversary of the presentation of the petition in the House of Assembly, the people of the province will be asked to sign a petition to be presented to the premier and finance minister asking his government for the removal of the tax on heat.

This time it is different and, in some ways, a little more desperate. Oil prices are forecast to remain high for the long term, as are electricity rates also forecast to escalate in the coming years. There is no sign of relief in sight.

That quest begins Friday, April 15^th with the start of a movement to get the taxes taken off this necessity of life and also a growing health concern for everyone. With projections of rising electricity costs to consumers yet to come, and no retreat in sight for petroleum product users alike, consumers and residents will be asked to participate in sending a clear message to government. Collecting a tax on a necessity of life is unacceptable in a time when this government (and the federal government) both are enjoying the benefits from our natural resources, and just a short twenty four hours after government-owned NALCOR has applied to the Public Utilities Board for an electricity rate increase to come to consumers on July 1st, 2011...because of the rising cost of oil.

Clearly, it is time to give back to the people who will need it most! Energy costs are rising and no one deserves to pay for a necessity of life.

Tomorrow afternoon, the prayer of petition will be made available on the NDP Party website at www.nl.ndp.ca and also listed on my blog for download and completion. There will be an address to return the signed petition to.

As well, the petition will be emailed, or mailed, to every municipality that is in the 2010 municipal directory. We're hoping that every municipality will post this petition where everyone in their respective communities can avail and sign it, and then send it back to us for presentation in the House of Assembly.

If you do not have an email address but wish to help us in our quest to gather names for this petition, we're asking you to phone us at the NDP offices at (709)729-0270 and we will forward a petition off to you.

Please pass the petition around and get others to participate in this exercise.

There is no greater need, and the time has come to do this now...

Remember.

Oil is trading higher.

Electricity rates are going up.

...and someone out there is being forced to make tough choices.

Regards,

George Murphy

Group researcher

Consumer Group for Fair Gas prices

Oil gains

Consumers to pay

Media release

Conception Bay South, NL, April 05, 2011- Consumers will be taking another hit at the pumps this week, and prices for heating oil and diesel will continue to take a tole on consumers. That's from George Murphy, group researcher for the Consumer Group for Fair Gas Prices.

"Blame it on Libya, the situation in the Middle East, North African unrest, or even steady demand, but the fact is that consumers should be pissed that, as a country that produces more than it consumes, we are subject to paying for fuels based on the world condition. I'm getting a little tired of hearing that our oil resources are sailing away for refining and to keep Uncle Sam happy, while we have our own citizenry freezing in the dark because of prices driven by speculators. It's high time that we saw the concept of 'Made in Canada pricing' for our own people through, and be damned the bottom line of the corporate bottom line." Murphy said.

"It's time we put in place a 'Newfoundland and Labrador first' policy on the further development of our own offshore resources, and it's time to start looking after our own people. We're just not seeing the full benefits of our resources. Food bank use is at an all-time high, the heating rebate buys a little less than a quarter tank of fuel now, food prices will continue upwards because of fuel surcharges, and pensioners haven't seen an increase in years. We have people choosing between food and keeping warm, and nothing is being done for the ones who need it most."

"The oil beat goes on."

"The numbers for this week are not good. Heating and stove oils are showing up again, this time by 1.24 cents a litre, diesel numbers are up by another 1.3 cents a litre and gasoline shows either 4.9 or an even five cents a litre increase on the way for Thursday.

"The only hope there is right now for us to see any relief is one of two things: a complete banking system collapse in the European Union, or a sudden drop in demand. While countries like Portugal have been showing signs of trouble in recent days with a huge bail-out needed for it's banking system, we still have not seen solid evidence of a drop in demand, especially in the United States. Prices still haven't taken their full hold of consumers pocketbooks yet."

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For more information, contact;


George Murphy
group researcher/Member
Consumer Group for Fair Gas Prices

Six days out and the seventh coming on...

Update, if you can call it that...

there won't be any drops in prices this week, suffice to say. here's what I have after six days:

• Heating and stove oils now show an added 1.05 cents a litre up.
• Diesel shows up by 1.2 cents, and...
• Gasoline now is up by 4.8 cents a litre.

I have to ask all of you out there "Do you think it's time for action on the tax on heat?". It became a topic during question period again after Lorraine Michael, leader of the provincial New Democratic Party, brought it up in the House of assembly here.

Drop me a line if you think so.

It's already a federal issue with the federal wing of the NDP carrying the removal of tax on heat as part of the party's platform.

I'll be back tomorrow night with the rest of the bad news for this week. Either way, we're not going to dodge this one and your heating bill will go up this week...

Regards,

George

Minor adjustments to pricing this Thursday
And more budget thoughts

Media release

Conception Bay South, NL, March 30, 2010- Consumers in Newfoundland and Labrador will again see some slight changes to fuel pricing this Thursday when the PUB adjusts prices based on the market’s last week of activity. That’s from George Murphy, researcher for the group.

What to expect with prices
“I expect heating and stove oils to increase by 28/100ths of a cent, diesel to decrease by two tenths and gasoline to decrease by 8/10ths of a cent. All this comes with oil increasing to $82 US a barrel. The last time we saw this amount for a barrel of crude was back on October 12, 2008 when oil dropped to $81.19 US a barrel, just shortly after the July slide. Oil climbed to a record of $147.23 on July 7th of that year. The big difference was that the Canadian dollar was measured at $1.19 against the US greenback. Consumers have saved about four cents a litre simply on the dollar difference.

State of flux
“Again this week, the markets are in a state of flux as they seem to be waiting for something substantial to happen. In spite of the positive economic news coming from the US, it’s like they’re waiting for something to build on before any other investment in the markets occurs. I believe that they’re fearful of a deepening financial crisis coming from Europe, in spite of some success met by Greece this past week in securing finances,” Murphy said.

“A huge build in crude oil inventories is another reason why the markets are taking a ‘wait and see’ approach to crude oil prices. A strong sign of waning demand for raw crude product is playing heavily into the markets. Another substantial build in inventories of raw product this week may be enough to send investors for cover in the interim until extra supplies are used up. That may very well take some time as production and rig counts have increased in recent weeks. The industry seems to be gearing itself up for another fall if the counts go up hand in hand with inventory building. Add to this the fact that refinery capacity also picked up for the last two weeks now and we have something troubling to the investor. All will hinge on an increase in consumer demand.

Provincial budget
“While it was a good budget, the province could have instituted a different tax cut that would have covered all individuals. Instead of the cut they gave to middle and upper class residents, they had the chance to offer some taxation relief to consumers and business in the form of tax cuts to all forms of heat and some relief to consumers from transportation taxes. The transportation sector would have welcomed the gas tax relief and it would have aided the export industries here that are fighting the uphill battle of a high Canadian dollar.
The relief from taxation levels on heat would have been all-encompassing and would have depended on your usage. Everyone would have been included in this measure and you would have saved in concert with your consumption. A complete removal of the provincial portion of the HST would also have taken government out of the consumers pocket and put disposable income back into the hands of the people that needed it most.”

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For more information, contact;

George Murphy
Group researcher/Member

"Nothing doin" budget for gas or heat users

Seems that every budget day, motorists in this province, and indeed across the country, are feeling a little left out when the good times are rolling.

Such has been the case for both the federal and provincial budgets, both of which were abject disappointments when it comes to some form of pricing relief.

Neither budget adressed the issues of high taxation on a commodity that has experienced rapid increases that far outweigh the rate of inflation. Prices aren't going to ease anytime soon either, in case you were wondering. My numbers are still reflecting anywhere between $1.22 to $1.31 a litre for regular unleaded gasoline by the first week of July here in Newfoundland and Labrador.

Here in Newfoundland and Labrador, gasoline taxes amount to almost 16.5 cents on a litre while the sales tax component averages half that again. Last year, the province collected close on $142 million in motive taxes and only invested close on $66 million back into road and ferry infrastructure, a far cry from the amount collected neddless to say.

Is this fair?

I think not...

If you're going to collect a tax for a specific intent, then collect it and SPEND it for it's intended purpose. Don't tell me that the people of Labrador aren't worth hard surface instead of a chip seal experinment. Don't tell me that the province has to wait for something to happen in the west bound lane of the Harbour Arterial road before proper dollars are spent and we see a full accounting of road work...

Heating oil users in Canada this coming winter are going to be in for a shock when they go to fill their tanks. We're not seeing spot prices fall back in the non-demand season for the fuel when it should be. Spot prices are now just slightly below those of last year and just aren't falling back the way they used to a couple of years ago.

Spots for gasoline exceed those of May month last year by something like four cents a litre.

Call me crazy... But in yesterdays budget, would motorists and energy users be better served by a tax break on any motive fuel and a complete removal of the province's taxation component off all forms of heat?

If the province wants to preach about taking charge of it's own house, then why didn't it start with breaking the HST Agreement of 1998 and enter into a "control" of it's own fiscal regime? Why can't we call our own shot on most taxes here in the province and give everyone a break on taxes that are collected at the sales tax level rather than the income tax level?

It sounds a lot easier to do that across the board rather than see income tax breaks that rival the equalization formula.

Income tax or equalization. Can any of us figure out how either works?

Maybe budget time should be turned into something tangible next time. You know...Something we can all sink our teeth into...

Regards,

George