Northern gas prices on the rise
Yellowknife prices up 20 cents/litre this week, Whitehorse retailers say price hike imminent
Gas prices are on the rise across the country, and Northern residents may be hit harder than most.
Prices jumped about 20 cents per litre in Yellowknife this week. They're up by at least 10 cents across most of Canada.
"I was filling up, and I was like: 'wow, $1.33,'" said Peter Wah-shee, in Yellowknife, who says he paid about $1.13 a litre last week.
Dan McTeague, who is a petroleum analyst with GasBuddy.com and the founder of Tomorrow's Gas Price Today, says the sudden jump is tied to refineries in the upper Midwestern United States, which have in recent weeks struggled to get product to market.
"Pretty much through out the entire prairies, B.C., interior, and even Ontario... the price of gas has gone up 10, 15 cents in one fell swoop," says McTeague.
In Whitehorse, Yukon, where highway prices recently rose closer to $1.30 per litre, downtown retailers were on June 18 still in lock-step at $1.17 for regular gas. At that price, independent dealers in Whitehorse say they are losing money at the pumps.
One of the independents who raised prices briefly this week in anticipation of a hike says he was forced to roll back because the major dealers refused to follow his lead. But he says prices will definitely be going up soon.
"The tax, and and other considerations... It's really up to the stations to make a decision as to what they can afford to set the gas at," says McTeague.
He says prices almost always go up at the beginning of summer because of high demand, then tend to drop in mid July.