Premier Andrew Furey says eliminating the extra five cents tacked onto the price of gas is not as simple as some make it out to be.

The five-cent increase was approved by the Public Utilities Board to help offset the cost of importing fuels to Newfoundland. That became necessary when the Come by Chance refinery was idled last year due to COVID-19.

A deal has since been reached to turn the refinery into a producer of renewable diesel and aviation fuels. That means importing fuels, and that five cents, likely won’t be going away any time soon.

Furey says government won’t intervene with PUB, and can’t afford to offset that cost itself.

He says doing so would create other pressures on other divisions of government, noting the issue has to be viewed in a broader context and is just one piece of a bigger puzzle.