Gas prices threaten area businesses

District motorists are facing the highest gasoline prices ever–and area businesses are being forced to adapt.
As of this morning, it was costing people 70.9 cents a litre to fill up here.
“We’ve been in this business 44 years and this is the highest we’ve ever seen it,” noted Mayor Glenn Witherspoon, owner of Witherspoon’s One Stop in the west end of town.
“Last year at this time, it was 56.9 cents,” he noted.
While higher prices at the pump affects everyone, the latest jump has been particularly hard on those who depend on their vehicles for business.
Paul Bock, owner of North Air Services here, said business will suffer as long as he has to compensate for the steady rise in fuel costs.
“We’re contemplating what to do. We haven’t experienced anything quite like this before,” he noted. “We’ll try to keep our customers happy but if this is a permanent thing, it will translate to higher fares.”
Area truckers also are being hard hit. They work by contract, which pays them by the volume shipped–and doesn’t take into account the added cost of fuel.
“That’s pure profit that we’re losing,” remarked Bob Kitowski, operational manager for Doug Kitowski Trucking here.
“We’ve had to take certain measures to absorb those costs. We’re training drivers to save fuel with less idling and reducing speeds,” he said.
Meanwhile, a big jump in the price of diesel also is expected to have an impact on district farmers. While their diesel consumption is relatively low now, the cost of putting in the crops may be shocking once spring arrives.
“It’ll hit them in the summer. It’s just another added cost. It’s a problem and it’s a cost that you can’t get around,” said Gary Sliworsky, ag and rural rep at the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs office in Emo.
“You can’t say ‘Maybe I won’t drive the tractor as much.’ You have to plant your crops,” he stressed.
The recent hike is being blamed on a steady rise of crude oil prices on the international market–from which gasoline and diesel are refined.
At the pumps, gas attendants and owners face some complaints but most consumers understand the increase is not up to them.
“A few of them complain a bit but there’s nothing we can do about it, it just keeps going up,” said Dennis Livingston, owner of Sunset Shell here. “Powers higher than me have control of it.”
The owners said their business hasn’t been affected, noting the price of gas has risen proportionally over in International Falls. And there’s no alternative for those filling their tanks.
“You need gas. We don’t have transportation like buses and stuff like Toronto and Winnipeg,” said Livingston.
And the situation doesn’t promise to get any better anytime soon.
“The rumour has it that by the summer it could get to 80 cents. That’s not good for the economy,” Mayor Witherspoon said.
On Monday, members of the Ontario Trucking Association appeared before the provincial Gas Prices Task Force at Queen’s Park to voice their concerns and requested relief in the form of a provincial tax break.
That’s something Premier Mike Harris didn’t rule out in a Canadian Press story published in yesterday’s Daily Bulletin.
Meanwhile, NDP leader and local MPP Howard Hampton also has shown his displeasure in the federal and provincial governments’ reluctance to help decrease fuel prices in Northern Ontario.