Gas prices in B.C. are set to hit an all-time record by the weekend.
Thursday, gas prices hit 161.9 cents a litre in Maple Ridge. The Petro-Canada station at Lougheed Highway and the Haney Bypass had the cheapest gas at 147.9.
Maple Ridge resident Heather Lee believes this latest spike in gas prices across the province is inevitable.
Lee said that prices in other places in the world are a lot more expensive, especially in Europe.
“We still have reasonably priced gas,” she said.
Jeff McGiverin, with the Friends in Need Food Bank, who was filling up the non-profit group’s Perishable Food Recovery Program truck, thinks increasing gas prices are a cash grab that is going to ultimately be detrimental to the operating expenses of the organization he drives for.
Another Maple Ridge resident, Chris Heron, was putting $20 in his vehicle at the Burnett St. and Dewdney Trunk Road Husky, where gas was 161.9. Then he was going to Mission where he expects to save about 15 cents a litre, to fill up the rest of the tank.
Heron, who works all over the Lower Mainland, said that even in Langley there was a 15-cent difference from station to station.
“Maple Ridge seems to be the worst,” he said.
Alberta resident Kim Pavelick, visiting her mother in Maple Ridge, was also shocked at the climbing prices.
With these prices, she said, you can’t afford to take your children to the playground or gym.
“Put the pipeline through,” she said.
“The environment is important, but the pipeline is there. We just need to twin it and move on to bigger and better things.”
Dan McTeague, with GasBuddy, said in a Tweet that gas prices have reached the highest in Vancouver and the Lower Mainland since October and, by Friday, there will be a new record set at 164.9 cents per litre.
He added that gas-bars hiked their retail margin by two cents combined with the province’s 1.16 cent rise in carbon taxes on Monday.
⚠️⛽️Alert: #Vancouver and the Lower Mainland ⛽️ prices have reached their highest since Oct 13. Tomorrow will see a new record @ 164.9 cts/l. Gasbars hiked their retail margin by an extra 2 cts and BC’s 1.16 ct rise in carbon taxes Monday made a bad situation worse
— Dan McTeague (@GasBuddyDan) April 4, 2019
“Unfortunately for consumers, not only are we going to tie the highest prices we paid ever here in Metro Vancouver, at midnight tonight we break an all-new record. We’re up, although it’s not a lot, one penny to 164.9. And that is just a price we have never paid right here in the area.”
mailto:cflanagan@mapleridgenews.com
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