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National Poll Results Indicate Canadians Have Little Knowledge on Energy Issues |
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Written by Wire Services/Staff
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Thursday, 08 June 2006 |
Almost 80 percent of Canadians expect gasoline prices to rise by 10 to 20 cents per litre or more in the coming months but seem prepared to cope with the increase if past behaviour is any indication. In a survey commissioned by the Canadian Centre for Energy Information, Ipsos Reid Research learned that despite the expectations for dramatic price increases, Canadians have actually made more trips to the gas pump during the past three years despite large increases in price during that period.
Tim Moro, Senior Vice President of Ipsos Reid believes the survey results indicate that Canadians will not commit to changing their behaviour despite their concerns about possible gas shortages. "Even as gasoline prices have risen by more than 40 percent since 2004, 37 percent of Canadians report that they have actually increased their consumption of gasoline over the past three years with the greatest increase in consumption reported Canadians with annual household income below $30,000", said Moro.
The Ipsos Reid Research also indicated that Canadians are not well aware of many important facts relating to gasoline including the price Canadians pay in comparison to other industrial nations, the level of taxation in gas prices or the source of gasoline in this country.
Even though Canada is a net exporter of gasoline Canadians believe they get more than half their supply from "somewhere else". Colleen Killingsworth, President of the Canadian Centre for Energy Information concluded that because Canadians have a weak understanding of the energy industry they are "not well prepared to have an informed discussion about how we want to reasonably address the critical public policy issue of energy in this country."
Although in reality, Canada supplies all of our domestic needs for gasoline, only 39% of those polled believed our gas is supplied domestically.
The survey also indicated that more than one third of respondents consider Canada to have higher gasoline prices than those in Europe and Japan when in fact the price of gasoline in these markets is almost double that in Canada. Surprisingly 33 percent of Canadians also thought gasoline prices in Canada were lower than in the United States, the only industrial nation with cheaper gasoline than Canada.
"When you find that many Canadians believe they pay more for gasoline than in Europe it becomes clear that the knowledge and understanding on this issue is far from ideal," said Moro. "It makes you wonder how Canadians would respond if they paid the price for gasoline that someone in the U.K. or France does where the price per litre is almost twice that we pay in Canada."
The Canadian study conducted by Ipsos-Reid on behalf of the Canadian Centre for Energy Information is based on a randomly selected sample of 1,004 adult Canadians and was fielded between May 23rd and May 25th, 2006.
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