Montreal Gas Prices These Days Are Near Some Of The Highest In Recent History

Have you been putting your car's gas mileage to the test, avoiding refuelling in the hopes that prices will come down? If Montreal gas prices have turned your head lately, it's for good reason.

According to CAA-Québec, Montreal gas prices have been hovering near the highest prices they've recorded in recent history.

"While we don't offer full data over time (we are not gas sellers, we only provide observations), we can say that the highest price recorded in Montreal over time was around 151.4 cents per litre," CAA-Québec's interim director of public affairs, Nicolas Ryan, told MTL Blog in an email.

"This was seen in June 2008, September 2012 and April 2014. And we're seeing similar numbers now as well."

CAA-Québec's "Gasoline Watch" index gives motorists a realistic price they can expect to pay at the pump on any given day based on the daily acquisition cost and a 52-week average retail margin, including taxes.

On October 14, the realistic price for Montreal was set at 151.2 cents per litre. The average price at the pump on the same day was 149.3 cents per litre.

This is fairly consistent with the city's average over the past week: 148 cents per litre.

In fact, last week, ahead of Thanksgiving, Global News reported that while the average price of gas in Montreal was around $1.48 per litre, some stations were pricing petrol as high as $1.50 per litre, or 150 cents.

But Ryan emphasized that the high cost of gas is not because gas station margins are too high. Rather, he said, it's a global trend occurring because "acquisition costs are higher."

"We'll always use our different tribunes to say out loud if ever we believe margins are too high, which is not currently the case across the province," he said.

This article's cover image was used for illustrative purposes only.