Province starts collecting fuel price data for Merritt, Williams Lake

MERRITT, B.C. — The British Columbia Utilities Commission (BCUC) is starting a new data collection project for twelve cities in British Columbia (BC) — including Merritt and Williams Lake.

The project aims to answer the public’s questions about fuel-pricing behaviours in each city.

This project builds on the BCUC’s observations from its first data collection initiative and is in response to public questions regarding fuel-pricing behaviours in the selected cities. The project will collect data from June 1, 2021 to December 31, 2021.

The same data was collected for Kamloops from June to December, 2020. It showed that the average price of gas during that period was $1.12/litre (including taxes); the average price of diesel was $1.05/litre (including taxes).

The information was made public through the province’s Fuel Price Transperancy Act (FPT Act). In December 2019, the government created passed the law, which requires companies in the fuel gasoline and diesel) industry in BC to report information on their activities.

Months later, it launched www.GasPricesBC.ca for the public to have access to the information and have a better understanding of the fuel prices within each region.

The BCUC will collect information from Oil Price Information Service and Kent Group Ltd. about fuel prices in Campbell River, Chetwynd, Chilliwack, Cranbrook, Duncan, Gibsons, Hope, Merritt, Penticton, Salmon Arm, Terrace, and Williams Lake.

The data will be published through a series of dashboards on GasPricesBC.ca to illustrate fuel price behaviours in the selected cities. It will be updated at regular intervals throughout the course of the project.

The BCUC was created as an effort to promote competitiveness and public confidence in the competitiveness of the fuel market. It does not regulate fuel prices.