Average Canadian gasoline prices are less than a penny a litre away from their all-time highs, according to a weekly pump-price survey released Tuesday.
The national average cost of a litre of regular gas rose to $1.252 a litre, up 2.2 cents from last week, Calgary-based MJ Ervin & Associates said.
The record high in MJ Ervin's weekly look at pump prices came in September 2005, in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. The average price then: $1.26 a litre.
The most recent survey — which looks at prices at 400 stations across the country — finds that a litre of regular is above $1.20 in all but two of the 60 cities surveyed. The cheapest gas was found in Kingston, Ont., at $1.146 and St. Catharines, Ont., at $1.199 a litre.
In Yellowknife and Labrador City, on the other hand, motorists are paying just over $1.41 a litre.
Gasbuddy.com — a web site that tracks gas prices across North America — said the average price in Canada was $1.263 on Tuesday.
During Tuesday's question period, NDP Leader Jack Layton accused the government of doing nothing to control high gas prices.
"You cannot trust this government to respond to this crisis," Layton told the House. But Prime Minsiter Stephen Harper dismissed the charge, saying that while other parties want higher gas taxes, his government has lowered the GST by two percentage points to return more money to Canadian households.
"It's obviously absolutely correct to observe that the price of oil and gas is rising," Harper said. "But you know, Mr. Speaker … the best the opposition can come up with is higher gas taxes. That's obviously not the right policy."
U.S. gasoline prices are at a record $3.60 US per U.S. gallon. They're already above $4 US in some areas.
World oil prices — the biggest factor in the rising price of gas — retreated from Monday's record highs to about $115 US a barrel, down $3. But oil prices remain five times higher than were just six years ago.
The oil boom has helped to drive profits at the world's biggest energy companies to breathtaking heights. On Tuesday, Royal Dutch Shell and BP reported total profits of almost $17 billion US for the first quarter — $9.1 billion for Shell and $7.6 billion for BP.
Petro-Canada reported its Q1 profit almost doubled to $1.08 billion.
