If you live in Ontario or Quebec, you could be paying a lot more for gas as of April 18.
“Whatever you’re paying today, look for an additional 14 cents to be added on to that by tomorrow,” Mr. McTeague told The Epoch Times. “Now, not every station is going to follow it, they may wait a day or two. But the markets are indicating 14 cents a litre. … And for Montreal and Quebec City, Ontario, these are prices we have not paid since August 2, 2022.”
The increase is caused by the market changing from winter fuel to summer fuel—and summer gasoline is more expensive, especially this year, he said.
“The winter blend is very inexpensive, relatively speaking because you’re adding products like butane to gasoline, which works wonderfully at getting ignition on the vehicle … but you don’t want that kind of volatility in your fuel come summertime,” he said.
Summer fuels use heavier additives like alkylates, which reduces the amount of vaporizing that gasoline will do, and can also slightly improve the mileage motorists can get, he explained. However, it comes at a cost.
“Alkylate, the price of alkylate, has skyrocketed,” he said. “And alkylates are also used as the prime ingredient in premium gasoline. So you’re mixing a lot more premium gasoline type products into the summer blends.”
For western Canada, he said, the price increase is coming in the next few weeks as retailers switch over—but the increase will not be as pronounced as it is in Ontario and Quebec.
“All of Western Canada relies on the Chicago spot market,” said Mr. McTeague. “The increase will be about nine or 10 cents a litre by the end of the month.”
He said consumers in Ontario and Quebec may see a drop of a few cents a litre by April 19 or 20, if Israel does not respond to the attack by Iran.
“Some traders believe that that’s a sign that things are going to be just fine,” he said. “The geopolitical premium is perhaps off for a day or two but it’s still leading to prices that most are going to find very uncomfortable.”
Rising fuel costs at a time when inflation is still relatively high is not good news, regardless of which part of the country people live in, Mr. McTeague said.
It’s all part of a bigger picture amid the carbon tax, a net-zero agenda, and a weakening Canadian dollar, all making life less affordable for many Canadians, he added.
“In the past, traditionally, we’ve been able to rely on our resources, we’re primarily an export market,” he said. But he said federal policies have dampened the country’s ability to get exports like oil and natural gas to world markets.
“We’ve cut off and guillotined our energy prospects, of getting energy to market,” said Mr. McTeague. We are “basically saying there’s no business case for natural gas or oil getting to markets. And we tell our major trading partners this, I think it sends a message to the rest of the world that Canada’s not a reliable place to invest money, which is why it takes 138 cents (in Canadian money) to buy the US dollar.”
“That adds 32 cents a litre to the price of gasoline in Ontario,” he added. “We’ve chosen to go down this road, we did so without taking into consideration the impact. And the impact for many people is the proverbial straw that’s broken the camel’s back. People are desperate … they can’t increase their wage.”
