Half of Canadians (50%) Are Willing To Spend A Nickel Per Litre More On Gas To Fund Alternative Fuel Research

Calgary, AB - According to a new Ipsos Reid survey conducted on behalf of CanWest/Global Television, half (50%) of Canadians are willing to pay 5 cents more for a litre of gas to fund research for "greener" fuel alternatives. An almost equal number (49%) say no, they are not willing to pay more.

Canadians from British Columbia (44%) and Alberta (42%) are the least likely to be willing to pay more to ensure that alternative fuels are part of their future, while those from Quebec (53%) and Atlantic Canada (53%) are the most likely to be willing.

Question: Would you be willing to pay an extra 5 cents a litre for gas to fund research for 'greener' fuel alternatives?

Other groups who would pay more to fund "greener" alternatives include:

• Younger Canadians (58% of those aged 18-24 say they are willing to pay more)
• Urban Canadians (51% versus 43% in Rural locations)

These are the findings of an Ipsos Reid survey fielded from February 28th to March 1st, 2007. For the survey, a representative randomly selected sample of 1,000 adult Canadians were interviewed via an on-line survey. With a sample of this size, the aggregate results are considered accurate to within 177 3.1 percentage points, 19 times out of 20, of what they would have been had the entire adult Canadian population been polled. The margin of error will be larger within each sub-grouping of the survey population. These data were weighted to ensure the sample's regional and age/sex composition reflects that of the actual Canadian population according to Census data.

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