Doug Ford warns gasoline companies to pass along his 10-cent-a-litre tax cut
(The Star Environment)

Premier-designate Doug Ford is warning gasoline companies they’d better pass on his promised 10-cent-a-litre tax cut to motorists and tread carefully with long-weekend price hikes.“I’m going to be watching every move they make,” Ford said Tuesday during a break from his first meeting with the 76-member Progressive Conservative caucus at the legislature.“Let’s keep in mind we’re going to knock the prices down by 10 cents a litre. Hopefully they can support the people of Ontario.”Ford was greeted by cheers of “Doug, Doug, Doug” in a crowded and stuffy room, repeating his election mantra of a government “for the people” to an excited group of veteran and new MPPs excited by the party’s first election victory in 15 years. He clarified remarks from last Friday that left observers wondering if he plans to regulate gasoline prices after the PCs take power from outgoing Liberal Premier Kathleen Wynne on June 29.“I’m not going to control that. We’re going to have a frank discussion with the oil companies,” Ford told reporters in a brief scrum. “Does it tick you off on a Friday on a long weekend just arbitrarily the oil companies decide to jack their prices?” he added, vowing to have a “heart-to-heart talk with oil executives.”“When you have four or five oil companies it’s called a monopoly.”A day after Ford’s transition team issued a directive to deputy ministers across the government for freezes on hiring and discretionary spending, his staff said the wealthy businessman was paying out of his own pocket for a pizza lunch for his MPPs and from now on it will be a bring-your-own “brown bag” policy.Typically, political parties at Queen’s Park have such meetings catered from their caucus budgets.“No more free lunches,” Ford said, adding he will “make sure we watch every single penny going fo ...