This city councillor wants to know why Sudbury gas prices are so high

One Sudbury city councillor wants to know why gas prices in the area are so high.

Councillor Robert Kirwan brought forward a motion at yesterday's council meeting, asking city staff to look into the matter.

Kirwan says gas prices seem to be lower just about everywhere else.

"One of the things that we constantly hear is that the price of gasoline in Sudbury is higher than anywhere else around," Kirwan said. "So all I'm looking for is something that will provide some kind of explanation as to why the prices seem to be higher than the provincial average."

Kirwan said one of the common complaints he gets from his constituents is the expensiveand inconsistentpricing across the region.

"If it's possible for local control to try and keep prices closer to the provincial average for Sudbury, because we are the largest municipality in the province and people drive longer distances than just about anywhere else in the province," he said.

"When you go down to some of the larger municipalities, if you drive around the corner you're getting different prices," Kirwan said. "So this seems to be more competition."

"So there may not be a whole lot we can do, but at least if we've got some time to dig into it, we'll have the answers that the municipality can at least look to."

Councillor Mark Signorettisaid he had concern that approving the motion would take city staff away from more pressing tasks.

"I think this is more of a provincial issue," Signoretti said. "And if there's a way of maybe, the mayor and with council endorsinga letter to the province just to get them to look into it."

"I don't know how much we can do at a municipal level," he said. "As much as we want to investigate, I don't know what we're going to find at the end."

Council voted to approve the motion.A report on gas prices will come back to the city's Finance and Administration committee in November.