Drivers across the country are scrambling to find the cheapest option to fuel their vehicles as the price at the pump continues to hit levels never been seen before.
In Vancouver, the price of gas is sitting at $2.09 per litre as of Monday.
That price has newly retired Richard Newman on edge.
“It’s crazy I just retired and they’re going nuts. Can’t afford it. Should’ve stayed working,” Newman said while gassing up in Vancouver.
“I live on a busy street down there and I just noticed that it’s quieter, it’s a lot quieter so but the prices are going crazy.”
In Alberta, the price of fuel is around $1.60 per litre.
On-reserve gas stations like M&R Gas on Siksika Nation are usually kept busy with the savings First Nations citizens get, but the owners say even with the savings, there have been fewer cars pulling in.
“It’s affecting us in a way that we used to see a lot of families coming and going during the weekends, in the evenings, we don’t see that a lot now. A lot of it is like, a lot of people I’d see two, three times a week, maybe I’m just seeing once a week now because they’re not travelling because gas prices are going up,” said Mona Royal.
The war in Ukraine is driving up the price. Because of economic sanctions on Russian oil imports and experts say it’s going to get worse.
Today U.S. President Joe Biden announced the United States will ban imports of Russian fuel, oil, natural gas and coal.
Canada doesn’t import Russian oil but it’s a supply and demand business.
Dan McTeague, president of Canadians for Affordable Energy and runs the website gas wizard that shows current prices of fuel across Canada, says the increase in fuel costs will be around for a while.
“They’re going to get a little more painful. We haven’t seen the end only because we’re looking at not only going into the summer demand driving season, a shortage in oil where demand is post-Covid, a lot of people playing catch up is exceeding supply,” he said.
“And it’s for that reason that we’re likely to see gas prices move up you nationally, perhaps as much as another 15, 20 cents a litre. I don’t want to sound flippant, the sky’s the limit we don’t know how high this is going to go.”
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In Winnipeg, regular gasoline hit $1.63 per litre Monday and increased another 10 cents overnight at some gas stations, while in southern Ontario it was approaching $1.80 per litre.
At the pumps in Quebec City and across Atlantic Canada, drivers are paying more than $1.80 per litre in some areas.
Those prices also had people at the pumps in Ontario concerned.
“It makes paying bills tight right now and to and from work I’m about an hour and fifteen-minute drive so it’s always affecting us a week to week,” said Joe Terry.
Omkar Naringrekar is a part-time student and also a part-time Amazon delivery driver. Most of his money is going towards filling up the vehicle he uses to deliver products.
“It takes around $80-85 of gas which is expensive for me because I’m not getting that much pay because of that because I am a university student so I am a part-time worker so because of that I’m not getting that much money. Most of my money is going to filling up the gas,” he said.
