TORONTO -- A Commons committee Thursday will begin investigating how a barrel of crude oil could jump from $70 (U.S.) to $140 within a year and what role speculators played in this sharp and economically painful rise.

Similar to U.S. congressional hearings that began this spring, the Commons Subcommittee on Oil and Gas and Other Energy Prices will ask oil executives and futures traders to shed light on the inner workings of the market. Committee members will likely demand greater transparency, call for regular inventory reports and seek limits on commodity traders.

With the price of oil down about 22 per cent since reaching a record high of $147.27 on July 11, Canadian lawmakers may be late off the mark. But Pickering-Scarborough East Liberal MP and committee vice-chair Dan McTeague said the basic problem remains.

"Consumers are getting hurt on the way up and hurt on the way down," said Mr. McTeague, referring to the commodity-price rollercoaster. "Our purpose is to shed light on what is obviously going to be a growing concern. You can't simply write off what happened between January and July."

What the committee is unlikely to uncover is an explanation why the price of gasoline at the pumps hasn't fallen in step with the declining price of crude, and why the Toronto area – historically cheaper than Kingston, Ottawa or Montreal – is suddenly the most expensive place in the region to fill 'er up.

"It's really weird," said Mr. McTeague. "I've never seen this kind of thing before. We've always had a slight advantage over Montreal."

Regardless of the city, there's a general feeling out there that pump prices are too high and don't fully reflect the rapid fall in oil prices.

Consumers became even more suspicious when the Competition Bureau announced June 12 that it had laid charges against a gasoline price-fixing cartel in Quebec. The federal watchdog has since hinted that investigations in other markets across Canada could lead to charges.

When oil traded around $115 in late April the price of gasoline in the GTA averaged about $1.18 (Canadian). With oil currently trading in similar territory, the average price of Toronto gas Thursday was $1.24. What explains the six cent difference?

"It's a myriad of factors that go into (pump prices), so that makes it difficult to explain," said Jon Hamilton, a spokesperson for Petro-Canada.

He said the weakening Canadian dollar is the main reason why retail gas prices are higher than they were in late April. When the Canadian dollar was rising in the spring and early summer, it helped to offset price increases at the pumps because crude oil is purchased in American dollars, he said.

"That strong dollar really kept our prices low for a long period of time," Mr. Hamilton said. "But the wind has gone out of the sails of the Canadian dollar."

In late April, the dollar traded at around $1.01 to the U.S. dollar. These days, it's around 95 cents.

Mr. McTeague conceded the falling dollar has played a role, but he said it doesn't tell the whole story.

He said retail gasoline prices in Kingston, Montreal and Ottawa are three to four cents cheaper. Meanwhile, he said, wholesale margins in this area have risen about three cents and retail margins have increased 1.5 cents over the past few months – a total increase of five cents.

"That's a lot when you're selling 65 billion litres of the product every year," Mr. McTeague said. "These margins need explanation and nobody has come forth and given me any." The obvious explanation is because the oil companies can do what they want, he said. "We are routinely held to the highest prices because we have no competition."

Most of the low-sulphur diesel and ethanol-blended gasoline in the Toronto area arrives from a Petro-Canada refinery in Montreal by pipeline, said Mr. McTeague, adding a lack of refining and storage capacity in our own backyard leaves us vulnerable.

"There's a very thin line supplying Toronto," he said. "Canada's engine of growth is still subject to some of the highest prices, and consumers have to be wondering how we could have left this to such a state of neglect."