Gas Prices In Canada Are Climbing Again & Here's How High They Could Get This Summer

Drivers, brace yourselves! The needle on Canada's gas prices is nudging upwards yet again. Two cities are seeing notable hikes, while a few others remain stubbornly high. And if the experts are right, folks, this is just a sneak peek of what's to come.

On Tuesday, Peterborough, Ontario's go-to place for slightly-less-painful fill-ups, saw its gas pricing go up a whopping 10 cents, catapulting its average price to 166.9 cents per litre, its highest in weeks. Meanwhile, Sudbury, the only other city to record an increase, is putting on its own tightrope act with a 6-cent increase that brings its tally to 170.6 cents per litre.

But don't sell your car just yet, because according to Gas Wizard, there's still a fuel-scented whiff of hope on the horizon. A handful of cities — Calgary, Cornwall, Edmonton, Regina, Saskatoon, Winnipeg, and Prince George — are holding their noses up, refusing to be pulled under by the recent tide of increases by staying below 165 cents per litre mark.

That's a far cry from the 170.9 cents per litre in Toronto and 205.9 cents per litre in Vancouver, the prices they're respectively dealing with as of August 1, 2023.

Now, you may be wondering why prices have blasted off to these nosebleed levels and where they're headed. Well, Dan McTeague, a gas analyst with decade-spanning knowledge of energy markets, had this to say to Narcity:

"The rise is due to energy markets getting pile driven into realities around fundamentals. Demand has skyrocketed while supply has been seriously challenged. I don't see $2 a litre in the cards but $1.80 is a given. It’s only a matter of time before the bearish excuses run out."

Despite the recent increase, it's worth noting that Ontario's average gas price — at 166.6 cents per litre, according to the CAA — is actually on a two-day downward trend. However, given that the province was averaging a price of 154.9 cents per litre not too long ago, we might want to take that 'good news' with a grain of salt.

That being said, the province hasn't quite hit 177.0 cents per litre average we were paying this time last year, so it's not all doom and gloom.

That’s our fuel-filled update for today. As we navigate these expensive streets, let’s keep our hopes as high as these gas prices or at the very least go in on a horse together.