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Gas prices on Vancouver Island expected to climb heading into Thanksgiving

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Victoria -

Jade Flynn was topping up her tank this morning at a gas station in Saanich, B.C., after getting a text message from her mom. That text message said that the cost of gas is going up.

"That’s why I’m here filling up," said Flynn on Wednesday.

The price at the pump on Wednesday was sitting at 154.9 a litre in the Capital Region. Prices are expected to rise overnight.

"Look for a lot of gas stations in Victoria going from 154.9 to 162.9,” said Dan McTeague, president of Canadians for Affordable Energy.

That has drivers feeling helpless once again.

"There’s not much we can do about it," said Don England. "We just have to pay the price or slow down on our use of the gasoline."

Another driver that spoke with CTV News on Wednesday felt the same.

"We just suck it up and go with it," said Andy Leonard. "That’s what the consumer has to do."

Werner Antweiler is a professor of economics at the Saunders School of Business at the University of British Columbia. He blames the rising costs at the pump on international oil demand and an increase in the price for a barrel of crude.

"We have seen some of the major price indexs reach almost $80 a barrel and we haven’t seen those prices in quite a while," said Antweiler.

The professor of economics says that world demand isn’t just driving up the prices on gasoline. European markets are starved for natural gas, which means if you heat your house with natural gas, you’ll likely be paying more.

"What is even more noticeable is the price for natural gas," said Antweiler. "Last year we were at an all-time low of $2 per gigajoule, and now we’re seeing prices going up to as high as $4 per gigajoule.”

Generally, this time of year we see fuel prices come down after a busy travel season. This year, however, fuel prices are only expected to increase as we head through the winter season.

McTeague says that because we import most of our gasoline from the U.S., our slumping Canadian dollar is causing a rise in fuel prices as well.

"In this case, it’s safe to say that those of us who are driving on Vancouver Island are losing at least 14 to 15 cents a litre because of our weak Canadian dollar versus the U.S. greenback," said McTeague.

He predicts in the coming weeks, we could be pushing into the 1.70 a litre range. 

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