With the death of a gas station attendant in Ontario, who was killed trying to prevent a gas robbery, national attention is being focused on ways to protect people in the profession. In B.C., Grant's Law was enacted in 2008, one of the provisions being that all gas purchases must be pre-paid. One local gas station moved to make self-serve gas pre-pay before the incident, and advocates such a move become province-wide.
Co-op General Manager Bruce Thurston says that the Co-op Gas Bar made the move to pre-pay because of a great deal of theft at the location. He says the amount of people driving away without paying was in the thousands of dollars, and there were a few a week.
Thurston admits the move has been controversial among customers, but says it's a decision he stands by, because it has eliminated theft problems.
"It is an inconvenience for folks to come in and pre-pay for their fuel. However, for the safety of our staff and reducing losses, we made that decision to change and we stand by it." The full-serve pumps are not pre-pay, he adds, for those who do not want to pay before they pump. The Co-op keeps video records of all the drive-away incidents, and works with police to find those who are stealing gas. However, Thurston says this doesn't prevent theft, and that the sheer amount of theft happening in the city is a surprise to many people. "We know of at least one incident where we have been hit twice by the same person, and the same person has hit other stations in town," he says.
Other stations were reluctant to speak on the subject, but some local stations have enacted more limited versions of similar policies. Several stations have pumps which are pre-pay in the evening, for example. Thurston notes that pre-pay is common in larger centers such as Saskatoon and Regina. He says it's something that needs to happen province-wide. He also says the incident in Ontario last week was a tragedy, but it reinforced a decision to go with a pre-pay system, since he does not want the same thing to happen to anyone in the province.
"I hope we go to the way of B.C., and I'm not afraid to say that. All fuel will be pre-paid prior to dispensing any fuel, just for the safety of our staff. I have to take their safety into account and that's our first priority."
