Summer gas prices in Vancouver may reach 185 cents per litre

Vancouver gas stations reached an all-time high last week of 173.9 cents per litre, according to CTV, breaking the previous high of 172 cents per litre set in the summer of 2019. One expert suggested that drivers may end up paying as much as 185 cents per litre. Dan McTeague of Canadians for Affordable Energy spoke with CTV on why prices may surge so much.

Amongst the reasons for the price increases, McTeague said a refinery outage in Washington state, the heatwave, a pipeline being offline causing a drop in production, as well as the increased demand for fuel as British Columbia pandemic restrictions are lifted were why the prices may have increased.

Vijay Muralidharan, a consultant with fuel analytics company Kalibrate told CTV last month that the increase in oil prices this year has been "astronomical."

Muralidharan said that for every dollar added to the price of crude oil, half a cent is added to the price of gasoline in Canada. He added that it's unlikely to see much of a drop in prices until August or September.

The Canadian Taxpayers Federation argues that British Columbia's province's carbon taxes in combination with the city's taxes are the leading to the price increases. According to the federation, the province's carbon tax adds 10 cents per litre to gasoline costs. They estimate that the province’s low carbon fuel standard—which requires fuel suppliers to add certain percentages of renewable fuels to gasoline—added 14 cents per litre. In total, the federation stated that Metro Vancouver drivers pay $0.68 per litre in transit levies and fuel taxes.