newsonaut

Turning inner space into outer space

Economy category

Friday, February 25, 2011

Helpless to fight the gas gouging

Now that prices at the pumps have been jacked up by a good 15 cents, pretty much everyone knows about the turmoil in Libya. We know about it because that’s the excuse oil companies are giving for gouging us. Reaction from motorists we talked to on Thursday ranged from skepticism to outright accusations of fraud.

Let’s just say that, given the evidence, it’s hard to believe that gas prices would have to go up so much and so soon. Canada is one of the world’s top oil exporters. Canada does import some of its oil but, according to Liberal MP Dan McTeague, we do not import any from Libya. Shouldn’t Canada be sheltered from this storm?

About the best argument you can make in favour of higher gas prices is that the price of oil is set by international markets on a per-barrel basis across the board. So if the price of a barrel of oil goes over $100, then it affects everyone.

The main problem I have have with this is that it doesn’t work both ways. It wasn’t that long ago that there was a slump in oil prices on the international market. But you never would have known it here. Prices at the pumps stayed stubbornly high. It seems we could have a golden era world peace and gas stations would still find excuses to charge us more.

The most frustrating part of this whole thing is the sense of powerlessness. Some drivers are angry, others are resigned to their fate. And not one of us has a solution.

Ziplines a growing tourist draw

The zipline proposed for the Chase area is just one of many that have been springing up around North America. Already, thrill-seekers can zip along steel cables strung up over a river canyon or canopy of trees in places all around B.C.

The one over at the Canada Olympic Park in Calgary looks especially intriguing. Anyone who has ever driven in to Calgary from the west has seen the massive ski jump that was built there for the Olympics. Imagine coming down that thing at speeds up to 140 km/h. There’s a video on YouTube that shows what it’s like. The main line is by some accounts the fastest on the continent.

On the other hand, Skyline, which operates one of the Whistler ziplines, claims to have the “fastest and most technologically advanced ziplines (canopy tours) in the world.”

There’s not a lot of information available about ziplines when it comes to their impact on the environment. What seems to be more of a worry is the safety aspect. A couple of high-profile cases in 2008 prompted the Vancouver Sun to file an access-to-information request that discovered some violations at Whistler. The B.C. Safety Authority has since clamped down with demands for several corrective actions.

Still, in the 20 years that ziplines have been around, the demand has been growing. In B.C. there are two at Whister and one in Sooke, near Victoria. Another one was built recently at Grouse Mountain. Plus, you can zip along with a great view of the Rockies at Kicking Horse River.

A zipline at Chase would be a great tourism attraction. I’m hoping that residents’ concerns can be satisfied, and that it will be built.

We can get richer even if we aren't getting bigger

Implied in today’s article about lack of population growth in Kamloops is that this is somehow a bad thing for the city.

The assumption many people are going on is that if population growth is flat, then economic growth must also be flat — and that’s certainly not the kind of image a city likes to project.

For example, if the city’s economy were firing on all cylinders, then new businesses and industries would be opening up, and more people would be hired. Presumably, some of them would have to be brought in from outside the city, which would increase the population.

You can see this way of thinking played out in reaction from Randy Lambright, community development supervisor for the City. He insists that while population growth may not be what it used to be, it does still exist.

It’s possible, though, that the current population can create more wealth in ways that enrich individuals but don’t necessarily lead to population growth. For example, if someone were to start up a successful online business, it would bring more cash into Kamloops. This in turn would contribute to improvement of the general well-being of people who already live here.

In fact, it could be argued that the absence of population growth can be a good thing because it means there aren’t new people coming in to look for a share of the pie.

In the absence of any other data, it’s impossible to say definitively one way or the other whether flat population growth in Kamloops is good or bad. Just bear in mind that population — while an important factor — is not the only factor.