Huge Price Surge At The PumpsFriday September 12, 2008
CityNews.ca Staff
Drivers received a rude awakening at the pumps Friday morning.
Gas prices shot up to the highest level ever seen in the Greater Toronto Area with fuel selling for around $1.36 per litre. For many, the 13-cent hike wasn't a surprise as there were predictions costs would soar overnight which led to long lineups and heated tempers at many gas bars around the city Thursday evening.
Friday's sky-high pump prices broke the GTA's previous record of $1.35, set back in July of this year.
We apparently have Hurricane Ike to blame for the shocking price surge as analysts fear the storm could do serious damage to oil facilities in the Gulf of Mexico. Industry watchdog Dan McTeague said it could be a couple of days before American drivers feel the sting of soaring pump prices yet Canadian prices shot up immediately.
He says the costs are fuelled more by greed than anything else.
"This is a sick industry, dysfunctional. No such thing as supply and demand," he fumed. "They supply excuses and demand extortion-like prices."
Click here to check out McTeague's gas price
forecasting website.
Drivers expressed a similar sentiment Friday morning as they were filling up.
"Ridiculous. This is ridiculous - $1.35 for regular? Typically you're paying $1.27, yesterday $1.22, now $1.35? The best way to describe it is ridiculous," Manny Barata said.
Our overnight increase roughly equals the same amount motorists in the 1970s paid, on average, for a litre of petrol - about 13 cents.
"What our parents were used to as a price we're now seeing as an increase in one evening," McTeague added.
They say misery loves company and GTA residents may take heart in knowing drivers across the province are in the same boat, shelling out about $1.36 per litre on average.
