The most important thing for Canadians to understand is that the price at the pump is underpinned by the wholesale price of gasoline. Crude affects the wholesale price of gasoline, but gasoline impacts the wholesale price of gasoline. In other words, the world trades in gasoline as well as crude oil. So the difference between crude oil and gasoline changes, and that difference is how much margin is available to refiners. It is the wholesale price of gasoline, not the cost of gasoline, that moves every single day in Canada. So when a rack price increase or decrease goes through, the independent retailers, who make up 70% of the market, have to buy at that price every day. So the daily fluctuations in price at the pump are fundamentally underpinned by the daily fluctuations in wholesale gasoline prices.
On August 27th, 2008. See this statement in context.