Gasoline prices appear steady again

FORT ST. JOHN, B.C. — Canadian motorists began the week with instability, which appears to be the best one word description for gasoline prices.

According GasBuddy.com, the national average had slipped back a bit over the weekend to open this week at 100.1, after getting close to a 102 cents a litre at the end of last.

That cut in half the week-over-week differential to three cents a litre and put the cross country average again below the common posted price in Fort St. John, still holding steady at 100.9

However, there was little weekend movement in the B.C. average. It opened the week at a 107.4 cents a litre, and was tied with the Quebec for the highest provincial average in the country.

Locally, GasBuddy senior analyst Dan McTeague believes Fort St. John motorists are in a steady-as-she-goes sweet spot currently, and he’s again giving credit to local retailers, conscious of the current economic downturn.

Speaking of everywhere else, the Gas Buddy monitor still had the low end price in the province in Burns Lake at 93.9 cents a litre — one cent less than the Prince George Costco, and eight cents less than the most common posted price in Fort St. John.

However, there remained a 15-cent difference between the local price and top end posts in the province of a 116.9; which extended from more than half a dozen outlets in the lower mainland all the way to Fort Nelson.

In the B.C. Peace, Dawson Creek still had the curious honor of having both the best and the worst prices in the region. Eight stations in the city are at 97.9 but a Shell outlet at a 109.9 — a 12 cent differential which could go to Dan’s local area supply theory.