Most Canadians are seeing a dramatic dip in gas prices ahead of the Canada Day long weekend, but drivers in Metro Vancouver won’t get the same relief at the pumps.
Prices are falling across the country, according to GasBuddy.com, with motorists paying an average of 104.4 cents per litre over the weekend – an average not seen since 2010.
"That's fairly remarkable when you consider in the intervening years the provincial governments add taxes, and of course most provinces have seen those rise dramatically," GasBuddy senior petroleum analyst Dan McTeague told CTV News.
And in some areas, the cost fell below the $1 mark. A GasBuddy heat map showed the lowest rates were in Manitoba and Saskatchewan, where the average price fell between 88.4 and 93.1 cents per litre.
While the map showed the average price into the Edmonton-Calgary area was 96 cents, some stations in Edmonton were selling fuel for a mere 86.4 on Friday.
Prices are also low in parts of Nova Scotia and New Brunswick, where drivers were being charged about $0.99 to $1.31. Pockets of southern Ontario – Huron and Renfew Counties, and the Rainy River Regional District – showed similar rates.
But, unsurprisingly to Vancouver-area drivers, similar low rates were not seen in the Lower Mainland.
The highest rates in the country were seen in Greater Vancouver, with GasBuddy tracking an average per-litre cost of 127.7 cents. Some gas stations visited by CTV News on Friday showed prices as high as 132.9 cents.
Prices were also high in the capital region, at an average of 121.9 cents per litre, and in Nanaimo where prices hovered around 123.9. Prices were around 120 cents per litre in most of the rest of the province, other than in parts of the Okanagan (112.7), Cariboo region (106.8), Fraser-Fort George area (99) and East Kootenay Regional District (111.9).
The reason behind the dip, for most, is that refineries are doing well and that demand has dipped in the U.S., McTeague said.
But on B.C.'s South Coast, where prices are a few cents higher than this time last year, benchmark prices are determined in Washington, Oregon and California.
"The fact that those have been relatively high with some ongoing refinery disruption is the exception to the rule," he said.
The other factor, he said, is that average gasoline taxes are about 12 cents higher in the Lower Mainland than in the rest of Canada, which is why Vancouver has the "rather dubious distinction of having the most expensive gasoline in North America," he said.
McTeague said he expects demand in the U.S. to dictate what drivers north of the border will spend filling up their vehicles. He said it's unlikely that Vancouver will dip lower than $1.25, and expects a prices to remain between 125 and 135 cents per litre for the next several weeks in the area.
With files from CTV Vancouver's Ben Miljure
