Photo: woman fuel / Shutterstock
While Metro Vancouver gas prices dropped considerably over the weekend, the province still pays a great deal more for fuel than the rest of the country.
Not only do British Columbians pay more at the pumps, but they also pay a considerable amount more for regular fuel. For example, GasBuddy.com uses an interactive heat map to display the differences in retail fuel prices across Canada. By simply clicking on each province, the map shows the average fuel costs for each one.
As of Monday, June 3, B.C.'s average cost for regular fuel is at 145.3 cents per litre. However, if you move the pin across the rest of Canada, the prices are drastically lower. Alberta, for instance, shows 116.7 cents per litre, while Saskatchewan shows 125 cents per litre. In fact, the second highest cost in Canada is Quebec, with 128.6 per litre - nearly 15 cents less per litre than B.C.
Gasbuddy.com
Of course, the average cost for diesel tells a different story: not only is B.C.'s average cost for diesel much lower, but it is not the highest in the country. Newfoundland's average cost for diesel fuel is 115.8 cents per litre while B.C.'s average cost is 113.9 cents per litre. With this in mind, it is still considerably higher than many other provinces, especially when compared to Saskatchewan's 99.1 cents per litre.
A recent Ipsos survey found that 52% of British Columbians said that rising costs of fuel is likely to impact their summer road trip plans – with 27% even considering changing their existing plans because of high prices at the pump.
On Monday, April 1, British Columbia’s long-standing carbon tax increased to $40 a ton, which is double the federal carbon tax introduced in Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Ontario and New Brunswick — provinces that did not previously have any carbon tax in place.
With files from the Burnaby Now.
