Yellowknifers hit by gas price hike
Different prices at different stations yesterday, but most charge $1.429 per litre
Daniel Campbell
Northern News Services
Published Friday, April 25 2014
SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE
Gas prices spiked in Yellowknife yesterday, in unison with prices at the pump rising across Canada.
Brandon Lebrun fills up his truck yesterday at the Shell gas station on Range Lake Road. He wasn't too pleased with the increase in prices. - Daniel Campbell/NNSL photo |
The price at most pumps in Yellowknife stood at $1.429 per litre of regular gasoline yesterday afternoon. By noon yesterday, Esso still held its prices at $1.389, while Gastown had the highest price at $1.449 per litre.
The last time gas prices rose in Yellowknife was when the price of gasoline shot up to $1.469 per litre on May 24, 2013 - but only for a few hours - then dropped back down to $1.389 per litre.
Gas prices in Yellowknife have stayed at $1.389 per litre fairly steadily since May 2011. The last major spike was in March 2011, when gas prices rose $1.282 per litre from $1.174.
Brandon Lebrun filled up his truck at the Shell gas station on Range Lake Road yesterday. He said he wasn't too happy about the price hike.
"It's a joke," Lebrun said. "It's only going to get worse with the economy collapsing."
Jason Parent, vice-president of MJ Ervin and associates - which specializes in crunching petroleum industry numbers - said the rise in prices in Yellowknife probably stems from increases across the country.
"The retailers (in Yellowknife) just needed to make a move at some point," said Parent.
The variation in pump prices across town will likely level out in the coming days, and those prices should stick for some time, Parent added.
Media requests to the Co-op general manager were declined, while the owners of Gastown, Esso and the Monkey Tree Gas Bar were unable to return comment on the price hike by press time.
A media request was sent to the corporate offices of Shell Canada, but no comment was returned by press time.
Gas prices across Canada rose on average by about 16 cents per litre, according to tomorrowsgaspricetoday.com.
Some of the highest prices in Canada were recorded in Vancouver, Montreal and the East Coast.
Parent said three things are driving up prices across the country right now - high crude prices, the seasonal run-up of wholesale prices in the spring and the exchange rate with the American dollar.
