‘Invisible Bottlenecks’: Study Calls for National Transportation Infrastructure Strategy to Lower Consumer Fuel Prices

Canada could have lower fuel costs and a more vibrant economy if it had more pipelines and a national transportation strategy, says a new report from Canadian think tank C.D. Howe Institute. In “The Big Squeeze: Lessons from the Trans Mountain Pipeline about the Costs of Invisible Bottlenecks,” published Aug. 13, G. Kent Fellows says a lack of pipeline capacity has cost the oil industry and specifically B.C. motorists. The B.C. Utilities Commission reported in 2019 that the wholesale cost of gas in Vancouver was 13 cents per litre higher than in Seattle and Edmonton. The provincial government concluded that this was due to collusion and price fixing, and in response passed the Fuel Price Transparency Act in November that year, aiming to combat price increases by compelling market actors to submit fuel data to government administrators....