I was in the beautiful city of Vancouver last month- the weather was amazing, the food was delicious, and the scenery of the Coastal Mountains flanking the urban city below is artistic perfection. I was fueling up my car in the city, only to be shocked to see it cost me around $114.
Because of this, I decided to take a good look at why gas prices are so high. I found three reasons: The provincial and federal governments, price gouging by gas companies, and international incidents.
The provincial and federal governments have routinely put up taxes on the price of gas. In British Columbia, the price of gas is taxed two-fold: the motor fuel tax and the carbon tax. The motor fuel tax also has dedicated taxes that apply in “certain regions of the province”.
For example, in 100 Mile House, you pay a dedicated fuel tax to the BCTFA (British Columbia Transportation Financing Authority). The carbon tax is, effectively, an additional tax on top of a tax. In 100 Mile House, these taxes add up to 28.81 additional cents, but in Vancouver, thanks to an additional motor fuel tax by Translink, the additional costs went up to 41.31 cents. No wonder it cost $114.
Meanwhile, the federal government charges an excise tax “at a flat rate of 10 cents per litre on gasoline”.
So high taxation on fuel is at least one reason - but another is price gouging by gas companies. It has been alleged by many that gas companies have been gouging customers. According to an investigation by the BC Utilities Commission (BCUC), they found that “the prices in the Metro Vancouver area are higher than would be expected under more competitive conditions” and that there is an unexplained 13 cent difference between Vancouver and the US Pacific Northwest. Marc Lee of PolicyNote has stated that it is akin to rampant price gouging from oil companies.
However, international incidents have also played a factor: the war in Ukraine and the fact that Russian oil has been embargoed has led to higher prices as well.
Now, barring a repeal of carbon taxes or companies being held to account, what can you do?
Well, there are some options, such as going by public transit, walking, taking a bike, or switching to an electric car.
Here are some problems with those options. 100 Mile House does have a public transit service, but it only goes to 100 Mile House proper and 108 Mile Ranch. If you live in Lone Butte, Canim Lake or Lac la Hache (as I do), you are out of luck.
Going full electric seems like a far more feasible option, but you will need to spend at least $70,000 on the new car, and there are not as many EV charging stations in the Cariboo region as there are gas stations.
There are many options that a government can do in order to help: they can invest in subsidies for EVs or build more electric charging stations, they could enact regulations on gas companies, they could try to solve all the international conflicts (as unlikely as that is), or they could axe several taxes they charge on gas. It’s all up to them, and if they can’t solve this, they’re going to get themselves fired.