Gasoline Price Explanation Metro Vancouver

[Steve G.]

  Here's a breakdown of current gasoline prices as of April 4th, 2024 in Southwest BC, based on a pump price of $2.08/litre.

  Costs:

  Crude Oil  34.4%

  Refinery Margin  20.8%

  Retail Margin    4.8%


 Tax:

 Translink   8.9%

 B.C. LCFS  8.7%    [unique to BC in the entire world, an special extra refined blend of gasoline with the aim of reduced carbon]

 Carbon Tax  8.5%

 Federal GST   4.8%

 Federal Excise Tax  4.8%

 B.C. TFA     3.2%

 
The taxes are comprised of:

• Motor fuel tax: 1.75 cents goes to provincial general revenue.

• Motor fuel tax: 6.75 cents goes to the B.C. Transportation Financing Authority, which is in charge of highways and other transportation infrastructure in the province.

• TransLink: 18.5 cents. This transit tax covers Metro north to Lions Bay, west including Bowen Island, south to the U.S.-Canada border, and east including Langley, Maple Ridge and Pitt Meadows. In Victoria, drivers pay their own transit tax of 5.5 cents a litre.

• Carbon tax: 17.61 cents.  On April 1, 2024, the provincial carbon tax went up from $65 a tonne to $80 a tonne, which translated to an extra 3.3 cents a litre.

• Federal excise tax: 10 cents. The federal government charges a flat rate of 10 cents a litre, which has been frozen at this rate since 1995.

 GST: 9.9 cents. The five per cent federal Goods and Services Tax is charged on crude oil, refining and retailing costs, and the other taxes, which the Canadian Taxpayers Federation has criticized as a “tax-on-a-tax.”

Refinery margin: 43.3 cents
This is the difference between the amount that a refinery pays for crude oil and the amount they sell their petroleum products on the wholesale market.

While the refinery amount seems huge, a significant chunk of that is due to the exchange rate.

Like all commodities, crude oil is priced in U.S. dollars whether they’re refined in Canada or elsewhere, said McTeague. If the Canadian dollar is trading at par with the U.S., the margin would be about 30 cents less.

Metro Vancouver gets about one-third of its fuel from Burnaby’s Parkland refinery, which produces about 55,000 barrels a day. About half to two-thirds of the region’s gas comes by rail and pipeline from Alberta, with a small percentage, on occasion, coming from U.S. refineries.

McTeague estimates the cost of transporting fuel through the Trans Mountain pipeline from Edmonton to the B.C. coast costs about three to seven cents per litre.

B.C. low-carbon fuel standard: 18 cents
B.C. drivers are also paying what is also known as a “second carbon tax,” which is buried in the wholesale price.

It’s a charge paid by fuel suppliers in B.C. who are required to buy carbon credits to meet the province’s low-carbon fuel requirements, said McTeague.

If you add it to other taxes, it would bring the total tax levy from 65 cents to 83 cents, or nearly 40 per cent of the total gasoline bill.

Crude oil prices: 71.5 cents
Fuelled by output cuts by OPEC, global economic growth and geopolitical events including conflicts in the Middle East, the price of crude oil hit US$85 a barrel on April 3, 2024, the highest since October.

 

 

[hardrockminer]

Nice breakdown!  When I lived in Squamish, gas was always cheaper there than in Vancouver but not 18.5 cents cheaper.  (The Translink tax). Someone, likely the retailer was pocketing an extra few cents.

The liberal government enacted legislation forcing fuel suppliers to reduce carbon content every year going forward.  This likely will be done with increasing amounts of ethanol.