Gas prices jump seven cents a litre in Ottawa

Gas prices in Ottawa have climbed again after a recent drop.

Canadians for Affordable Energy President Dan McTeague said that after a 10-cents a litre drop over the past two days, prices were expected to increase seven cents a litre on Sunday.

Several stations in the city were selling regular at 175.9 cents per litre Sunday morning after being around 168 cents on Saturday. 

"This is probably as good as it's going to get," McTeague told CTV News Ottawa on Saturday. "I don't think there's going to be a global collapse yet."

Gas prices dropped six cents a litre on Saturday, following a four cent decline on Friday.

"It's been pretty cheap lately," driver Nick Losier said as he filled up for a trip to Toronto. "I filled up $2.05, $2.06, lately, but $2.01 I'm very happy about."

McTeague told CTV News Ottawa earlier this week the drop in gas prices is linked to a decline in demand in the United States. On July 1, the Ontario Government cut the tax on gas for six months to help motorists.

McTeague says the lower prices for fuel will result in higher demand, which may cause prices to rise in the future.

"It may very well trigger much higher prices down the road and the reason is very simply it will encourage demand and that demand can’t be met with limited supply. So it’s short-term gain long term pain, unfortunately," McTeague said.

The price of a litre of gas was $1.74 a litre on Good Friday back in April.

Gas prices have been on the decline for more than a month after peaking at a record 215.9 cents a litre in Ottawa on June 11.

"It feels good that it's coming down," driver Joe Kiraly said, hitting the road for a trip from Val-des-Monts to Cambridge.

"I think we’ve been getting gouged and no matter what there’s always some excuse to bring the price up and never an excuse to bring it down."

McTeague says the lower prices will not last long.

"So I think this is probably the sweet spot for the next week or so, after that lookout, I think we’re marching back to $2 a litre," McTeague said.

According to ottawagasprices.com, the average price of gas in Ottawa one year ago was $1.25 a litre.