Brent Reaney
Northern News Services

Yellowknife (Aug 17/05) - Record high gas prices have two Yellowknife cab companies thinking about asking City Hall for a rate hike and homeowners may soon feel the same pinch.

"We are angry about it, and maybe we'll go to City Hall and see about raising the meter," said City cab driver Khai Nguyen, who estimates his costs have increased by $20 a week.

On Monday, Petro Canada topped all retailers with a $1.10 a litre. Most other stores were selling gas at just under $1.06 a litre, but expected prices to jump to near $1.10 within the next week.

Diamond Cab general manager Phu Huynh has heard from drivers who support the idea of a fair increase, while others think approaching the city would be a waste of time.

"The gas goes up, and the meter still the same. It's not fair," said Huynh, whose company has 28 drivers at full capacity.

Neither would say how much of an increase they would consider asking for.

Currently passengers pay $3.25 for the flag fall, then 10 cents every 150 metres. The last time cab drivers saw an increase in fares was December 2002, when flag fall was raised by 50 cents from $2.75.

Yellowknife resident Stan Carpenter said that the gas price increases of past few weeks added $10 to the cost of filling his 66-litre tank. "You've got to plan trips now, instead of just jumping in the vehicle and taking off," he said.

Fuel prices are linked to the price of crude oil and last Friday a barrel of American light, sweet crude hit a high of $67 U.S.

Northern pump prices will eventually go higher, according to industry analyst Michael Ervin, of Calgary-based MJ Ervin & Associates.

"We're getting into a bit of a supply and demand crunch," he said.

According to Ervin's Weekly Pump Price Survey, Yellowknife's surveyed price of 105.9 cents per litre was still behind Whitehorse's 108.9 cents per litre, and Montreal's 108.4 cents per litre.

Transportation costs and higher mark-ups - needed to compensate for lower volume sales - account for higher prices for Northern gasoline, Ervin said. If crude keeps climbing, homeowners can expect to pay higher prices this winter for furnace oil and propane.

A manager at Superior Propane said even if crude oil prices remain the same, propane prices will go up.

"Whether we like it or not, they'll attach the price to whatever's increasing the fastest," said Ken Yoder.

An average Canadian family using propane in their furnace, hot water tank, dryer and cooking range would use up to 5,000 litres of propane in a year, he said.

Now at 62 cents per litre for propane, a five cent hike would cost families $250 more a year.