SASKATOON – This week’s hike in the price of gasoline is a taste of things to come, according to the founder of GasBuddy.com. Over the past few days, prices in Saskatoon have risen to around 84 cents a litre for regular gas.
Jason Toews, one of the founders of the popular website, says the reason for the hike is profits.
“Gas stations, their margins have gotten smaller as they got closer to the bottom,” he told Global News. “What they did is raise their prices to increase their margins, profit restoration essentially.”
The price of oil has been hovering around $50 per barrel, less than half of what it was for much of 2014, and giving consumers a welcome break at the pumps. But Toews believes what we pay at the pump will start to go up.
“We could see prices drop slightly in the next week or so, maybe a couple of cents on average,” said Toews. “But the bad news is we’re going to start to see gas prices going up as we get closer to spring and summer driving.”
He thinks the price at the pump will be over a dollar per litre by summer.
“We’ll probably see a spike up in May, but then it should come back down a little bit, from around a $1.20 (per litre) to right around $1.10, $1.05 for much of the summer,” he said.
While that’s certainly higher than now, Toews believes lower crude oil prices will continue to give consumers a bit of a break, compared to last year. In June of last year drivers in Saskatchewan were paying over $1.30 per litre.
“I think (crude) oil prices will go up a little bit,” said Toews. “We could see 50-something (per barrel) low 60’s, the good news is that will keep gas prices relatively low, or lower than we’ve seen in the past number of years,” he said.
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