Fuel prices could reach record levels this weekend at Metro Vancouver pumps.
That’s according to gas analyst Dan McTeague, who predicts drivers will be expected to pay as high as $1.71/litre Friday and $1.75/litre on the weekend.
“As vaccination rates increase and travel restrictions lift the demand for gas is skyrocketing but supply is not,” says McTeague, president of Canadians for Affordable Energy.
Partly to blame is a gas shutdown plaguing a refinery in Ferndale, Wash.
“There’s a shortened repository of gas in the South Pacific market which supplies Vancouver Island and the Lower Mainland,” McTeague says.
These factors are causing unprecedented highs in both B.C. fuel prices and those just across the southern border.
READ MORE: Gas prices in parts of B.C. could reach $1.70 per litre by summer, analyst predicts
“We haven’t seen this type of supply crunch since April 2019,” McTeague says, predicting prices will remain high until major changes occur.
British Columbia is the highest-taxed jurisdiction in North America, costing drivers an average extra 77 cents per litre.
“It could take a recession to change this,” McTeague said. “The government needs to back off on taxes.”
READ ALSO: Electric cars are 80% cheaper to fuel than gas vehicles: BC Hydro
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