Skip to content
Join our Newsletter

Vancouver has highest gas prices in Canada

Add the gas you put into your car as yet another cost for making Vancouver an expensive place to live.

Add the gas you put into your car as yet another cost for making Vancouver an expensive place to live.

Just as with real estate, gas prices here are the highest in the country, according to a report released earlier this month by the Canadian Taxpayers Federation.

The report, part of the 17th Annual Gas Tax Honesty Day, compares the price of gas and the taxes on fuel across the country.

Vancouver, with its well-known status as the most expensive city in Canada, does not fail to disappoint: Metro Vancouver residents pay $0.48 of tax on every litre of fuel, boosting the price to a $1.25 average price per litre.

Jordan Bateman, director of the lobby group in British Columbia, said the high price of gas is due to a variety of taxes compounded together.

“Rounding up to $0.50, for the average consumer this is a pretty easy calculation. It you fill up your car with $40 of gas, you are paying $20 in tax,” Bateman said. “You need to take a step back at that point and think, am I getting the value I deserve for that tax money?”

In addition to GST and excise taxes, the price for each litre includes a carbon tax and a TransLink tax on fuel.

The report also found that Alberta has the lowest gas prices in the country, and only Montreal comes close to Vancouver’s heavy taxes. Victoria’s gas prices are also relatively high, at $1.18 per litre, but in British Columbia outside of Vancouver and Victoria, gas prices fall to $1.09 per litre, with tax amounting to only $0.36 of that.

The Pembina Institute, a think tank dedicated to clean energy and reducing the impacts of fossil fuels, argues the rising cost of gas is actually a good thing for the city because it indicates environmental efforts are working.

“The tax per litre is high, but you have benefits in terms of road maintenance, climate protection and in terms of the transit system,” said Matt Horne, associate director of the institute in B.C.

kathleen.saylors@gmail.com

@KathleenSaylors