Gas prices likely to rise in 2018

Canadians can expect to pay more at the pumps in 2018, according to GasBuddy’s latest Fuel Price Outlook.

While gas prices will be at their highest level since 2014, there’s some relief for Saskatchewan drivers with Regina and Saskatoon projected to have some of the lowest prices in the country.

And it appears there are a number of factors for why that would be the case.

“Lack of pipelines to the United States means that a lot of Canadian oil is being stranded and it is being discounted. We’re not getting in Canada $61 a barrel, we are getting maybe $35, $36 if we are lucky,” Senior Petroleum Analyst Dan McTeague explained.

As long as Canada maintains a reliance on the U.S., McTeague argued we will always be subject to whatever issues are being faced there.

“It looks like two refineries have run into some more trouble in the US and that could lead to keeping those prices where they are,” McTeague said.

There is one bright spot for drivers in Saskatchewan, at least for now. The absence of a carbon tax, until Ottawa imposes one, is keeping prices low here.

“The two provinces that have the cheapest fuel prices also happen to have the lowest tax jurisdictions of all the Canadian provinces and do not have carbon taxes attached to them,” McTeague pointed out.

But McTeague admitted regardless of prices, drivers will likely continue to fuel up in 2018, albeit with a grumble.