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An analysis of gas prices by CAA-Quebec for 2016 has concluded that Montreal area motorists were overcharged at the pump.

The Montreal area possesses numerous gas stations, high sales traffic and a variety of companies running service stations, all of which should have produced a market more competitive than others. Furthermore, last year saw a general drop in the cost of gasoline.

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However, CAA-Quebec noticed profit margins last year were higher in the Montreal area than in other, less populous regions of Quebec, a finding it feels is questionable and abnormal.

The 2016 mark up for a litre of gasoline in Montreal was 6.9 cents, compared with 2.6 cents a litre in Quebec City, 3.8 cents in the Laurentians and 4.7 cents in the Mauricie.

Compared with prices in 2015, the per-litre profit margin last year had dropped by 9.2 per cent in Montreal, but at the same time plummeted by 41 per cent in Quebec City, 21.9 per cent in Lanaudière and 21.7 per cent in the Mauricie.

Meanwhile, CAA-Quebec noticed that gas prices fluctuated in unison throughout the Montreal area, a concern it intends to share with Quebec’s Energy Board.

In 2016, the price for crude oil dropped 16.3 per cent compared with 2015. At the same time, Quebecers paid just seven per cent less to fill up their gas tanks, a saving of about $101 for the year for the owner of a small car and $134 for the driver of an SUV.