Motorists in the greater Montreal area had a bad surprise on Friday morning: from Mirabel to Salaberry-de-Valleyfield via Laval, Longueuil and the Plateau Mont-Royal, the cost of a liter of gasoline crossed the 2 $.
Posted at 12:03 p.m.
Updated at 8:00 p.m.
According to the Régie de l’énergie, you had to pay an average of precisely 202.7 cents, a peak, in the West Island of Montreal, in Dollard-des-Ormeaux and Dorval. In the other affected sectors, prices ranged a few decimal places above $2.
These are increases of about 8 cents per liter compared to prices recorded last Monday.
The only notable exception in the greater Montreal area, again according to the Régie de l’énergie report, was an average of 196.9 cents in the Anjou and Rivière-des-Prairies–Pointe-aux-Trembles sectors. . In all cases, this is a price lower than that which CAA-Quebec deems “realistic”, taking into account the cost of acquisition and the profit margin of retailers, in its Gasoline Info section. For Montreal, as of Friday, that realistic price is 202.8 cents.
“It hurts the wallet,” says Érika Lepage, whom she met while filling up at a Petro-Canada station on Avenue Papineau, in Villeray. She has to drive about 40 km every day for work, so “it’s sure that it still affects me a lot”.
“It used to cost me $45 to fill up, now it costs $110, $120,” observes a man who simply introduces himself as Armando. “Sometimes I want to go somewhere, but I always think about gasoline […] and the government doesn’t help, unlike in Ontario,” he sighs, where Doug Ford’s Progressive Conservatives have temporarily cut gasoline and diesel taxes.
Suzanna Aguilar only puts what she “really needs” in her tank today, when the pump price is just over $2.01 per liter at this station. “I’ll wait for it to go down before I fill up,” she said.
“Oil indicators have been rising sharply for several weeks and the successive increases are also new records in all regions of Quebec, as far as we know,” says Nicolas Ryan, Director of Public Affairs at CAA-Quebec.
At this time, it remains impossible to know how long this situation will last.
Nicolas Ryan, Director of Public Affairs at CAA-Quebec
According to the Régie de l’énergie, the minimum gas price for retailers in the Montreal agglomeration is 189.7 cents. The bulk of this amount is the price paid for loading, 132.36 cents, to which must be added 29.20 cents in federal excise tax and provincial fuel tax (TCP), as well as sale.
Elsewhere in Quebec, gasoline prices generally climbed during the week, but remained below $2 per litre. It is in Saguenay that we benefit from the best price, that is to say 187.9 cents.
Not like in 1973 and 1979
For George Iny, director of the Association for the protection of motorists (APA), these increases should lead consumers to reconsider their choice of vehicles. “We are “wasteful”, he decides. We could all drive cars that consume 6 liters per 100 km; we would be a little more sheltered from skyrocketing fuel prices. But the average is more in the 10 liters. People are ditching compacts and switching to SUVs. »
PHOTO ROBERT SKINNER, LA PRESSE ARCHIVES
George Iny, Director of the Association for the Protection of Motorists
He acknowledges, however, that switching to hybrid or electric vehicles is significantly complicated by supply issues. “A consumer today who wants to make this transition will have his vehicle in 2023. The market is strangled and prices are high. »
He doubts that the recent rise in the price of gasoline will have the same effect as during the oil shocks of 1973 and 1979, which had pushed motorists to obtain smaller vehicles. “People at the time were willing to reduce the size and weight of their car, it was a small sacrifice. Today, it’s the opposite: technology allows fuel savings, but there is a displacement effect, we buy bigger. »
On international markets, the price of oil has risen significantly this week. According to Yahoo! Finance, the price of crude oil (crude) rose from US$101.57 on Monday to US$109.23 at the time of this writing, up 7.5%. The war in Ukraine and supply difficulties, in particular, have led to extreme volatility in oil prices.