Get ready for carbon-based fuel price spike, warns OTA

by Truck News

TORONTO, Ont. — The new year will bring in a new carbon pricing policy in Ontario which will cause diesel prices to increase five cents a litre over the current average wholesale rack price for 2016, the Ontario Trucking Association said.

The anticipated price increase slated to take effect Jan. 1 would be consistent with the impact of carbon pricing on diesel prices in Quebec and with forecasts previously made by Premier Wynne.

“Fuel is a trucking company’s second largest cost,” said OTA president Stephen Laskowski. “Supply chain systems are in place to capture such increases. However, this is a unique circumstance in that fuel will rise only in a specific region. Users of trucking services in Ontario should be prepared to see the cost of fuel to transport their goods rise rapidly in the New Year.”

In addition, as a result of current and impeding volatility of the fuel market, OTA reiterated its support for a province-wide review.

The Government of Ontario, through the Ontario Energy Board, recently announced it will launch a review of the provincial transportation fuel market, including gasoline and diesel. This review is primarily in response to growing concerns over the variation of prices at the pump, especially in northern Ontario.

The stated focus of the review will be on providing more information about how gasoline and diesel retail prices are set, concentrating on:

The extent and causes of retail gasoline/diesel price variations over time and between regions within Ontario;
How Ontario compares with pricing and markets in other jurisdictions;
The information available to consumers about pricing and price variations.

While the main focus will be on how this affects consumers paying retail price for fuel at the pump, it also presents OTA an opportunity to provide comments. OTA members wishing to provide comments with the provincial government can so by forwarding comments to operations&safety@ontruck.org by December 5. The comments will then be consolidated and forwarded to the Ontario Energy Board.


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  • 1. All fossil fuels are arcaic and no longer needed like coal.
    2. The prices vary? Canada doesn’t like competition so we pay all the same price. Dictatorship and communism at its finest.
    3. Carbon pricing should have been in place straight across Canada 10 years ago.
    4. The planet needs renewable energys now but big oil will control that all other energys not take flight because of money, sad.
    5. I am not an environmentalist but merely a person whom cares about the environment and my children’s future.