Record-breaking gas prices in B.C. could keep climbing, experts say

The cost of gas on British Columbia's South Coast is hitting record highs and experts say the price at the pump is not likely to come down anytime soon.

Prices at many stations across Metro Vancouverhit 186.9 cents per litre this week, while some drivers in Greater Victoria are paying over$1.94 on Thursday.

Mark Jaccard, the director of the school of resource and environmental management at Simon Fraser University, saidthe current price surge toward $2 per litre is likely because of the war in Ukraine.

Russia accounts forabout 10 per cent of global oil production.Now that many countries aroundthe world have stopped buying their product, there's a shortage,driving up prices at the pump.

Prices are not just determined by supplybut also by "fears and expectations,"Jaccard noted and wars, storms and transitioning economies all play a role in stoking that fear.

"They are rising everywhere in the world, not just in British Columbia," he said.

This is not only because countries are trying to avoid using Russian natural gas and oil right now, but because some countries, primarily in Europe, are trying to reduce their dependency on fossil fuels altogether, he added.

"The long-run effect is actually lower prices foroil but, for now, you could very well see higher prices for oil while you try to make that transition," Jaccard said.

Werner Antweiler, a business professor with the University of British Columbia, agreed the invasion of Ukraine is "really driving prices high."

He and Jaccard also agreed prices are likely to get worse jumping well past $2 a litre before they get better.

"As the situation in Ukraine is not looking promising ... we can expect the sanctions against Russia to start biting."

1-cent-per-litre tax increase still coming in April

But British Columbianswho are seeing prices creep closer and closer to $2 a litre should not expect government intervention.

On Thursday, B.C. Premier John Horganalso attributed the price jump to the conflict overseas.

"People, when they look at almost $2 a litre for gasoline, they immediately say, 'How can we reduce this?' And taxation is a part of the increase one centbut [this kind of] increase overnight has everything to do with international instability and, of course, the events unfolding in Ukraine today," the premier said during a news conference.

He acknowledged calls to change the incoming one-cent-per-litre carbon tax increase arriving next month. The increaseis part of a federal mandate, he noted, butis beneficial to B.C.

"Itmay be easy for politicians to declare that taxes are the problem. Those taxes go to building our roads, to providing the transit, to making sure the infrastructure is as... having come through the atmospheric river this past fall, I think people understand better than in the past how fragile our infrastructure is and how importantit is to make those investments."

Energy minister Bruce Ralston has also saidB.C. will not cap the price at the pumps.

"For the government to step in to the private market and set prices and fix prices is a major major step and has unintended consequences," said Ralston. "The gas companies could turn around and dry up supply and drive prices even higher."

Ralstonsaid theone-cent-per-litre carbon tax increase will go ahead as planned on April 1.