The price of gas has risen almost 18 cents a litre in just under a month. Greater Victoria drivers are paying 149.9 at the pumps for regular gas while Vancouver drivers are forking out 155.9.
The increase comes as a refinery on the lower mainland has been out of service for an extended period of time. The facility has been down for almost a month and provides about 25% of the fuel needs to Vancouver and the island. That means we have to buy more gas from the U.S. where other refineries have also been down.
Asked about the rising prices Premier John Horgan says it's a supply issue driven by reduced refining capacity -- something he thinks Ottawa needs to address:
"It's a supply question, we have reduced refining capacity. I would certainly love to see the federal government take some leadership in this regard and say that if we do have an opportunity for our fossil fuel industry in Alberta it would be to ensure that we are providing low-cost clean energy for people in Canada."
Horgan says instead Ottawa has focused on a pipeline that will do nothing to lower energy costs in Canada:
"The Kinder Morgan proposal, as it currently is constructed, will not bring down ... regardless of what someone might say to get in the newspaper...will not bring down gas prices. It will send diluted bitumen to another jurisdiction. If we spent a fraction of the time talking about getting new refining capacity in Canada that we've done in trying to get a pipeline built to service other jurisdictions, we'd be a lot better off and prices would be lower. "
Analysts say prices will be going higher when a 2% increase in gas taxes kicks in across the Capital Region next month to pay for local bus service improvements. And the carbon tax will also rise from $5 a tonne to $35 a tonne -- pushing prices up further.