Gas price hike expected in Manitoba

Come the weekend, Manitobans will be paying more for gas and the price could climb even higher in the coming weeks and months according to a gas expert.

Dan McTeague, who is the president of Canadians for Affordable Energy and also runs the gas prediction website GasWizard.ca, said the updated carbon tax will kick into effect on April 1, which will impact the price at the pump.

"One thing we cannot escape is the 3.26 cent plus GST increase that comes on April Fool's Day, that is the federal government carbon tax. That's for gasoline," said McTeague. "Diesel will go up by 4.01 cents, so with GST, about 4.2 cents a litre."

With the carbon tax jump, McTeague said Manitobans can expect to pay around 155.9 cents per litre starting Saturday and unfortunately, that number could jump more in the near future.

McTeague said by the middle of April, gas could climb by another four or five cents as a new blend of gas gets used.

"We switch from winter blends of gasoline to summer blends of gasoline. That's a thing," said McTeague. "In the winter, we are using butane as one of the elements within gasoline. Works great when it's cold, it ignites very quickly, but you don't want that happening (in the summer) for environmental reasons and, of course, sensitivities to the emissions systems on most vehicles."

He said in the summer, the blend uses alkylates, which he says cost around four to five cents more than butane.

McTeague said this will mean the price of gas will be around the 160 cents per litre mark by mid-April.

When looking ahead to summer, he said people shouldn't anticipate the price coming down at all, as he thinks prices will hover between the 160 to 175 cents per litre range.

"It won't be like last year where we were testing the $2 a litre range, 190. But we will be within 15 to 20 cents of that and that still means it's going to be a very expensive summer for many. So take advantage of these prices, they may seem high right now, but they're likely to get permanently, at least until September, much higher."