Moose Jaw residents are definitely feeling the pinch at the pumps, as gas has spiked by roughly 20-30 cents in the last week with motorists paying as high as 185.9. 

This is definitely a drastic jump from where it was 10 days ago at a reasonable 155.9 cents per litre, which was where it stayed for almost two months.  

According to GasBuddy, eight out of the ten stations are reporting a price of 175.9, with the other two coming in with a price ten cents higher.  

Last week, Discover Moose Jaw spoke with Patrick DeHaan. a GasBuddy Petroleum Analyst about what is causing the drastic price increases.  He says that these increases are due to oil refinery issues both in Western Canada and the United States, which have had an impact on prices.    

“A lot of US refineries feed into Canada, and so when those facilities go down it can have an impact on both sides of the border,” says Dehaan. “An exceptional number of issues have developed including an electrical fire about a month ago at a refinery in Indiana, and another fire at a refinery a week and a half ago in Ohio.” 

He concluded by saying that if these refineries don’t return to normal operations, then prices will continue to jump. Once the refineries are back online DeHaan says that it could take two to three weeks for gas prices to resemble the resumption of oil production.      

“It could be mid to late October before we get down to gas prices where they were prior to these refinery issues and that’s if everything goes well at these refineries in terms of resuming normal operations.”   

As of Wednesday afternoon, the average price of gasoline in Moose Jaw is 175.9 cents per litre, which is two cents lower than the province average of 177.9.  

Vancouver, BC, yet again comes in as the country's most expensive place to purchase fuel with a staggering price of 236.4 cents per litre. Orillia, ON, remains Canada’s least expensive fuel price at 139.3.