Fuelled Frustration: Saskatoon sees 20 cent spike at the pumps

Fueling up a tank of gas is costing Saskatoon drivers more Thursday — a lot more. Keenan Sorokan reports.

Fueling up a tank of gas is costing Saskatoon drivers more Thursday — a lot more.

“It’s a bit of a kick in the pants,” one driver said while refilling a tank in response to fuel prices surging 20 cents per litre across much of the city.

By mid-morning in Saskatoon, many service stations were advertising $1.89.9 for a litre of a fuel. On Wednesday morning, many of those same stations were advertising $1.69.9 for a litre of fuel.

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“It doesn’t make anything better with cost of groceries, trying to feed a family and we live half hour to the city, so every time we have to come to the city, it’s a little crazy,” one driver said.

Several drivers speaking to CTV News Thursday say out-of-town trips are becoming difficult.

“Thirty-eight dollars it cost me yesterday to fill back up again when I got back to Radisson,” one driver said as the price change took effect. So, it was $38 to come to Saskatoon and go home again."

While others are hoping prices will ease in time for summer road trips to other provinces, some drivers are already adjusting plans to accommodate increased fuel costs.

“It makes people think more about wasting fuel,” another driver said. “Trying to link up their, errands so they’re not going in, out, back and forth.”

Farmers are especially feeling the pinch at the pumps. Unlike pre-purchasing seed or fertilizer, fuel must be purchased and paid for on the day it gets delivered.

“Everything that happens at this time of the year requires the use of equipment or vehicles that all are burning gas or diesel,” said Stuart Smyth, a professor at the Department of Agricultural and Resource Economics at the University of Saskatchewan.

“There would be a significant cost increase for those ordering fuel today as opposed to yesterday.”

However, Smyth says there is still optimism for the growing season despite multiple snowfalls in April delaying seeding for the region. With Chinese canola tariffs reduced to 14.9 per cent in March, Saskatchewan’s golden crop could rebound in 2026.

Fuel, fertilizer and seed costs are rising as farmers become impatient to get out in the field.

“Farmers are really putting millions of dollars in the ground with no guarantee as to what their returns are going to be in the fall harvest season,” Smyth said.