Edmonton gas prices rise to $1.28 at some stations
To view this site, you need to have Flash Player 8.0 or later installed. Click here to get the latest Flash player.
Gas prices leap up roughly eight cents, costing Albertans up to $1.28 a litre. By noon on Wednesday, the average price in the city was sitting at $1.27 per litre.
Another surge at the pumps has Albertans crying foul. "The gas price is a little atrocious," says Luke Holuboch. "I think with this new Conservative Government we have in place now, they should get their story together." Because of the recent spike, it costs Holuboch $178 to fill up his truck, and because of a long commute, he fills up every four days. "The oil companies are making billions of dollars in profits while we're suffering away," he says.
Despite costs ranging from $1.12 to $1.32 a litre, Alberta still has one of the lowest rates in the country. The average price of a litre of gas in Canada is $1.32. Torontonians are paying $1.41 a litre. Loyola Carey - a Newfoundlander working in Alberta's oil industry - offers a little perspective: "I'm from St John's Newfoundland, and gas is $1.40 a litre there right now, so $1.19 seems not so bad to me."
The average Canadian price is higher than the US average, but down under, Australians are paying $1.50 a litre, and British drivers are forking over $2.16 a litre. In France, it will cost you a staggering $2.26 a litre at the pump.
So, if crude oil prices have fallen dramatically from last week, why are drivers still paying high prices at the pumps? Finding crude oil - and the cost of getting it out of the ground - is the largest component cost of the gasoline you buy. Refining that oil - turning it into fuel - is the next part of that process - and a very profitable one.
"Right now the expectation is that oil prices are going to continue to rise, and it's a great opportunity for refiners to make a little bit of money," says Schulich School of Business professor Perry Sadorsky. So, the recent spike is being traced back to the wholesale prices going up. Refiners - owned by big oil companies - are making record profits… again.
Aside from driving less, Sadorsky says there is something the average Canadian can do to ease the pain. "If you really think a lot of money's being made by oil companies, buy shares in oil companies."
With files from Global Toronto.
