Gas prices in the Greater Toronto Area (GTA) have risen once again, eclipsing a previous record high set just days before.
By Friday afternoon, gas prices in the GTA had hit between 194.5 cents per litre and 195.5 cents per litre — depending on the retailer — marking a new record-high in the region.
Just days earlier, on Wednesday, gas prices reached 191.9 cents pre litre, surpassing the record high of 190.9 cents per litre set back in March.
In an email to Global News late Friday afternoon, Dan McTeague, president of Canadians for Affordable Energy, said prices are expected to jump another cent overnight to 195.9 cents per litre at most stations.
“Some will be 196.9 (cents per litre),” he said.
McTeague said that on Sunday prices will jump four cents, to 199.9 cents per litre, with “some going to 200.9 cents a litre.”
In an interview with Global News earlier on Friday, McTeague said several factors including a weak Canadian dollar, supply and demand issues and the federal carbon tax have pushed gas prices higher.
“We’ve cut off oil pipelines in this country, (and) the rest of the world has found plenty ways not to produce enough oil and the world demands more oil, the supply just isn’t there,” he said.
McTeague said the Canadian dollar is no longer keeping pace with the U.S. dollar.
“The fact that it isn’t right now (and that) it takes 120 pennies to buy a U.S. dollar, is adding about 30 cents a litre of gasoline,” he explained.
McTeague said it’s not only gasoline that is becoming more expensive, adding that diesel prices are also “shooting up” to almost 250 cents per litre.
“That’s the workhorse of the Canadian economy,” he said, noting that farmers, manufacturers and airlines purchasing jet fuel will all be impacted.
“It is becoming very much the summer of our discontent, the proverbial perfect storm,” he said.
McTeague said while these prices “might come down a little bit,” he said the days of gas prices below 150 cents per litre are “over unless we go into a global recession.”
McTeague previously told Global News that he expects drivers in the GTA could see gas prices at $2 a litre after the May long weekend.
Comments