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Jennifer McPhee
Northern News Services
Chris West, manager of QC's retail operations, defended the company that owns two of three gas bars in Iqaluit during the March 12 council meeting.
In communities outside Nunavut, where the government controls the price, gas costs on average nine cents a litre less than in Iqaluit.
Coun. Glenn Williams wondered why gasoline is more expensive in a city that uses close to half the gas consumed in Nunavut.
He also raised the issue of price-fixing, asking why different companies continuously charge the same price.
"The reason I came here is to reassure you we are not gouging the public," West said.
West called the comments made by Williams and printed in the March 4 edition of News/North "unacceptable."
"There's no proof," he said, adding that council should apologize and print a retraction in the paper. He said the gas bar has a "very small profit margin."
Mayor John Matthews pointed out one councillor raised the questions, not the entire council.
Williams was out of town for the meeting. But Coun. Stu Kennedy backed his comments.
"What we're looking for is an explanation of why margins do exist. I haven't heard it yet."
West said that, to provide a full explanation he would have to "open up the whole operating statements." He said the operating statements would show there's nothing to get excited about.
He added operations in communities are subsidized by the territorial government.
Coun. Lynda Gunn suggested council research why only outlying communities receive subsidies from the government.
But when News/North contacted Ross Mrazek, deputy minister of public works and services, he said the government does not subsidize operating costs in outlying communities. "I don't know where he got that idea from," he said.
Coun. Chris Wilson said that gas companies in the South also keep prices at the same rate, raising and lowering prices according to what competitors do. But he said Iqaluit never seems to benefit from fluctuations.
"It never seems to work the other way," he said. "Prices never seem to go down. They always go up."
