The soaring price of gasoline is on the minds of many people this summer.
There is some evidence, mostly anecdotal, that it is starting to change people's habits.
I've heard that Vancouver Island is hungry for tourists this summer. While gas prices are just one factor - the main one being the huge expense of taking the ferry - they can't be dismissed.
Additionally, the long lines going to and from the U.S. are at least partially driven by gas prices. Even though gas prices there have also risen steeply, gas remains cheaper south of the border, largely because there is far less tax on gas in Washington state.
Unfortunately, the cheaper gas price leads to more Canadians doing other shopping in the U.S. and killing two birds with one stone. They are also hurting local businesses and reducing local tax revenue.
I was driving in a number of areas of Surrey last Sunday and was quite surprised at how few vehicles there were on the road, particularly as the Fusion Festival was on - and that event was supposed to attract 100,000 people. While many used transit, which is great, one would think some people might drive. But judging by the few vehicles I saw in the middle of the day on roads like 96 Avenue, 128 Street, Scott Road, 72 Avenue and King George Boulevard, many people weren't driving anywhere.
The high levels of taxation on gasoline are the prime reason that gas is often $1.50 per litre in most parts of the Lower Mainland. When it hit that level in 2008, people were outraged. This time around, it seems people are quietly fighting back.
In Langley, prices have been a little lower, mainly due to Costco opening up a gas bar and lowering their prices. This has caused other retailers to follow suit, although the prices just across the Surrey border in Cloverdale are often up to 10 cents a litre higher.
TransLink and the provincial and federal governments aren't about to lower gas taxes, even by half cent a litre. They are addicted to the revenue. That's why we will never see the carbon tax go away. Even if it was scientifically proven that the earth was cooling, that tax is staying. And when a politician judges that he or she can get away with it, it will be boosted.
While most people would live with high gas taxes if there was an alternative, that alternative does not often exist in Langley and other areas of the Lower Mainland, including parts of the Tri-Cities. People in these places have poor or no transit service, and that's why they get angry when they hear about subways to UBC and gondolas to Simon Fraser University.
World oil prices have risen, and that has something to do with our gas prices. But according to experts, it seems they have more to do with refinery shutdowns, wholesale prices and even the lack of pipeline capacity.
One thing is for sure: Most people have no more money in their pockets than they did last summer. So with the price of gas as much as 20 cents a litre more than it was a year ago, that means many people are driving much less than usual.
Frank Bucholtz is editor of The Langley Times, a Black Press sister paper of The Tri-City News.
