NDP candidate proposes oil and gas ombudsman

NEWS RELEASE

CAROL HUGHES NDP CANDIDATE FOR ALGOMA- MANITOULIN- KAPUSKASING

************************* Federal government should be protecting Northerners from oil and gas price hikes

ELLIOT LAKE - With gas prices in the North at over $1.30 a litre pushing Northerners against the wall, it’s high time the federal government start protecting Northern consumers by establishing an oil and gas ombudsman, said Carol Hughes, federal NDP candidate for Algoma-Manitoulin-Kapuskasing.

“Even residents who don’t drive will feel the effect of the gas price hikes as the cost of food and consumer products go up as the cost of transportation goes up,” Hughes said.

Hughes said that gas is unfairly priced higher in different parts of the North and that gas prices have reached a critical point where working families that need to drive are starting to feel the impact of the new gas price highs in their monthly incomes.

“Without transportation alternatives, residents and workers far from city cores have no choice but to keep paying the ever-increasing cost of gas for their cars, which means restricting what they can buy, including essentials,” Hughes said.

To compound the problem, natural gas industry authorities indicated yesterday that natural gas prices are also expected to rise by 20 percent and come into effect by July.

Hughes said the NDP is asking for an end to highway robbery and has introduced a bill to establish an oil and gas ombudsman that would be charged with providing strong, effective consumer protection.

Harper has so far rejected the idea.

“Is there another way being presented by Harper or Dion to make sure no big business can swindle, cheat or rip off hard-working Canadians? Right now the Harper-Dion alliance prefers to allow to the big oil companies to increase their prices and then reward them with a $14 billion tax giveaway,” Hughes said.

“Today people can only complain to each other about being gouged at the pumps, with no one in their corner to take on big oil and gas,” Hughes said. “With the oil and gas ombudsman, consumers would have someone in their corner to fight the oil and gas price squeeze.”

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