Kamloops has seen gas prices jump to some of the most expensive in B.C.

Many stations were selling for about 82 cents per litre last week but most are now selling for about $1.05 per litre.

Dan McTeague, president of Canadians for Affordable Energy, says the jump is tied to the midwestern United States.

“Mostly because refineries are starting to see demand increase in that region. That region is really the benchmark for us here in central B.C. They went up about 50 cents per gallon, so when you convert the weakness in the Canadian dollar into U.S. terms, it works out to about a 19, 20 cent per litre increase. And that’s why we saw this corresponding jump at the pumps,” he tells NL News.

According to GasBuddy, the cheapest gas prices in Vancouver today remain at just over 80 cents per litre. Gas in Metro Vancouver is taxed much heavier than the rest of it, but its prices are reflective of U.S. markets in the pacific northwest, McTeague says, where demand has not caught up.

McTeague expects prices to go up in the weeks ahead, although not as dramatically in Kamloops as they likely will soon in Vancouver and coastal B.C., as the market corrects itself.

“When things get back to normal, I think you’ll start to see the full effect of prices rebalancing themselves, such that although it’s nothing great to ride home about, you’ll be paying a lot more in Kamloops but they’ll be paying a heck of a lot more in Vancouver,” he says.

“There’s an expectation that prices will rise. Will they rise radically and dramatically? I don’t think so. Certainly the past week has been an eye-opener that what has fallen dramatically can also come up almost as dramatically.”

McTeague also points we would be at slightly higher gas prices if a provincial increase of the carbon tax had gone through as planned. That tax was supposed to rise from $40 to $45 per tonne on April 1st but was put on hold until further notice because of COVID-19.