How expensive is gas in Canada?
According to CAA’s daily gas price tracker, Canadians paid an average of $1.68 per litre on May 2, 2024. That’s six cents more than the lowest average price in the previous 30 days, and 12.3 cents more than one year ago.
What national averages don’t show, though, are the unpredictable price spikes experienced in some locales. Case in point? On April 18, 2024, Toronto drivers woke up to find gas prices had climbed from $1.65 to $1.79 per litre overnight.
That 14-cent-per-litre increase meant that Ford F-150 owners would spend up to $19 more filling their tanks, Dodge Durango drivers would pay an extra $13 and Toyota Highlander drivers would pay $9 more per fill-up. It would cost an extra $8 to fill a family car like the Hyundai Sonata or Chevrolet Malibu, and $7 for smaller cars like the Honda Civic. Use a fleet of heavy trucks for your business? That Silverado 2500 or Ram 2500 HD will cost you $20 to $35 more to fill.
These are big jumps, but gas prices are still well below what they were at the height of the pandemic. In the summer of 2022, the national average price reached an eye-watering $2.11 per litre, says price-tracking website GasBuddy.com.
According to the Canadian Fuels Association, Vancouver had Canada’s highest average gas prices in 2023, followed by St. John’s, Charlottetown, Montreal and Halifax.
If you’re frustrated by wildly fluctuating gas prices, you’re not alone. Below, I’ll give you easy fuel-saving tips that could trim your gas bills by 15% or more. But first, let’s take a look at what affects gas prices in Canada.
Why do gas prices go up and down?
The price you pay for a litre of gas at the pumps includes many costs and taxes that vary between countries, provinces and even regions—but that’s only part of the story. To understand what affects gas prices, it helps to understand how crude oil is processed, and why it’s in such high demand.
Understanding crude oil
Crude oil is a highly valuable substance, found deep underground. It’s made of ancient dead stuff—animals and plants that lived millions of years ago. The value of crude oil lies in its ingredients, which we use to make things like plastic, synthetic rubber, detergents, heating oil, jet fuel, engine oil, asphalt and, of course, the gasoline powering our cars.
Justin Pritchard
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