The last great drive of the summer

Labour Day traditionally becomes the last great drive of the summer season, many folks make one last trip to visit family and friends, others head down the road to take up new studies at colleges and universities across the country.

So, in normal times the price of a litre of gas on Labour Day is usually a pretty pricey thing, the volume of the traffic on the road seems to result in a price spike and higher cash intake for the oil companies.

But this year, something strange is seemingly going on. The price of a litre of gas has actually stabilized, if not gone down leading up to the weekend’s road travels. Mind you different areas have different prices owing to a number of factors.

Here in Rupert, we’re still well above the national average of 1.02; the last posting of prices spotted around town had a litre of gas selling for 1.13 at stations around the city.

Not bad considering where we were a few short weeks ago and the days of gas over 1.20 but still nowhere near the bounty of savings available in other parts of the country.

Reports out of Ontario earlier this week had a price war raging in the suburban Toronto area, where prices dropped down as low as 67 cents a litre, the first time they’ve dropped that low since 2004. That turned out to be a one day wonder, making those that parked in line ups around Toronto glad they did, but even the new prices in the nineties are a spot better than those of the heat of summer this year.

Across Canada, the prices seem to fluctuate rather wildly, Northern Ontario is taking 1.27 out of every pocket per litre of gas, making that long stretch across Lake Superior a costly little adventure this Labour Day weekend.

Alberta, where all that black gold is produced is posting prices of 94 cents a litre, an eleven cent saving from one month ago.

They say that the prices may continue to drop a little bit as the late summer rolls into fall; however the usual caveats of hurricanes, wars, pipeline problems and petulant foreign governments can come into play and spike the price upwards unexpectedly.

We guess the only lesson to learn is that when the price is low top yourself up, when it’s high, drive and drive until almost the very last drop is gone.