As consumers across Canada fume over the high prices they're paying at the pumps, Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty is calling for an investigation into soaring cost of fuel in his province.

"Why is it (gas prices) seem to go up so much faster than they come down?" he said at a Liberal caucus retreat in Kitchener, Ont.

The premier also appealed for calm Friday, one day after renewed hurricane fears sparked the prospect of a gas shortage and price hikes. Rumours of gas selling for as high as $2 a litre in parts of the province drove many motorists into a panic at the pumps.

Although none of the rumours have proven true, McGuinty said they were successful in creating the false impression of a gasoline shortage in the province.

And drivers unwilling to take any chances tested their patience at crowded gas bars, leading in at least one instance to fisticuffs.

After one car cut in front of another at a Toronto-area fuel station on Thursday, the two drivers wound up starting a fight witnesses say involved a crowbar. Two men were taken to hospital for treatment of injuries from the scuffle.

The suspects reportedly fled the scene.

Responding to news of the fight, McGuinty expressed his disappointment.

"I urge Torontonians to allow cooler heads to prevail," said McGuinty on Friday.

"It is not a good situation, but it is not as bad as apparently some people believe it would to be."

He said the government won't implement a price freeze or set up a price watchdog, and that the most important thing the province can do is call for an investigation.

McGuinty's appeal for the federal competition bureau to investigate gas prices was immediately shot down by Conservative critic Elizabeth Witmer, who suggested the move was merely a hopeless attempt to placate the public.

The oil industry, meanwhile, has denied charges of price gouging, insisting Canada has among the lowest prices in the world.

"The only country that has lower prices is the United States," said Fred Scharf, Petro-Canada's vice president of marketing. "And there's one reason for that: taxes."

Opposition MPs and some consumer groups are calling on the government to cut one or two cents in the 10-cent federal excise tax on gasoline, to help ease the impact of high fuel prices.

But the federal government is refusing to reduce its tax, and so consumers will continue to pay the ever-increasing bill.

Prime Minister Paul Martin stressed Friday, however, that the government isn't profiting from the excise tax.

"If you look at the excise tax, it doesn't go up. It's a fixed amount," Martin told ATV News in Halifax in an exclusive interview. "It doesn't go up with the increase in the price of gas."

He said the money collected from the tax goes into medical funds for hospital equipment, and toward improving infrastructure and water treatment for municipalities.

"That money is not being wasted," said Martin. "I can tell you right now the government isn't making money on this."