Mayor Steve Black is hoping the city will join others in formally protesting consistently high gas prices in the area, as well as the Highway 11 corridor.
A formal resolution was presented in draft form at Monday's city council meeting.
The final two paragraphs in the resolution demand answers:
“Be it resolved that the Council for the City of Timmins does hereby request that our Provincial MPP, the Ministry of Energy, the Ministry of Northern Development and Mines, and the Premier of Ontario, Kathleen Wynne, review and provide us an answer as to why Timmins remains above the remainder of the province. And further be it resolved that they ask the competition bureau to investigate”
Black said the draft will be tweaked to include some federal information and also praised recent work by Timmins-James Bay MP Charlie Angus.
“I would like to give our MP credit where credit is due as he has also kicked up his lobby efforts again recently in terms of gas prices,” said Black.
January 21, 2016 was used as a snapshot of the inconsistencies in the NEOMA (North Eastern Ontario Municipalities Association) region compared to the rest of the province.
Highway 11 corridor and Timmins in northeastern Ontario:
| Timmins | 101.6 |
| Kapuskasing | 104.7 |
| Hearst | 102.9 |
| New Liskeard | 101.9 |
| Cochrane | 102.9 |
Rest of province:
| Sault Ste. Marie | 97.9 |
| Kenora | 93.9 |
| Parry Sound | 92.9 |
| North Bay | 90.7 |
| Sudbury | 89.9 |
| Kingston | 91.9 |
| Cornwall | 83.9 |
| Barrie | 83.4 |
| Toronto | 82.9 |
| Windsor | 82.9 |
| London | 81.9 |
| Thunder Bay | 77.9 |
| Ottawa | 76.9 |
“Doesn't matter where you look, they're all 10 to 20 percent higher,” said Black.
“This has a lot of impact on a variety of things. Not just our residents, obviously where its very easy to see the impact when our residents go to the pumps, but businesses and corporations looking at the costs of fuel and doing business here in Northeastern Ontario.”
He said he realizes that some may find the complaint tiresome and even futile, but insists Northerners cannot give up the fight.
“I think its worth council's efforts to appeal to the upper levels of government and ask why the Northeastern region seems to stand alone in terms of gas prices remaining high despite the plummeting prices of oil and plummeting prices of gas around the rest of the province, not to mention our neighbouring jurisdictions” he said.
Councillor Noella Rinaldo mentioned the efforts of former city councillor John Curley, who had previously spoken to the Competition Bureau on the matter in 2014.
“We're very consistent. We're always above everybody else,” she said.
She hoped that the longtime Member of Parliament, who is a high profile face in Ottawa and in national media, can boost the effort.
“I'm glad that we're bringing this conversation up again and who knows, with Mr. Angus behind us perhaps we'll be able to get some answers,” said Rinaldo.
The matter will be back on the agenda for next Monday's meeting when the official council vote will take place.
