Air Canada walks back new seat selection policy change after backlash
Air Canada has paused a new seat selection fee for travellers booked on the lowest fares just days after implementing it.
Canadians should prepare themselves for an expensive summer at the pumps as the price of oil continues to skyrocket, with one analyst warning that a $2 per litre price tag may become a common occurrence in many regions.
The warning comes after months of record-high price fluctuations driven by post-pandemic demand for fuel and a decrease in supply, and compounded further by sanctions on Russian oil handed down in March.
And while Canadians may have grown used to volatile price swings over the last few months, analysts say Easter weekend price jumps are setting the stage for an even more unpredictable summer market.
Gas prices per litre in the Greater Toronto Area (GTA), for example, are set to soar Saturday, jumping from an average of 173.9 cents to 185.9 cents at most gas stations—representing a spike of 23 cents in just 72 hours.
“Twenty-three cents per litre increase in the last 72 hours… that’s a rate that I’ve never seen before, it’s unprecedented and it does not bode very well for the summer,” Dan McTeague, president of Canadians for Affordable Energy, told CP24 Friday.
McTeague says the jump is due, in part, to the switch from winter to summer gasoline—a yearly event that typically drives prices up.
Winter gasoline uses butane, which is cheaper to produce and ignite engines more quickly in colder temperatures. Summer blends, on the other hand, use alkylates, materials more often found in premium gas.
This switch usually costs consumers five to eight cents more per litre.
“The kind of gasoline you get tends to change from April 15 to September 15. It’s been around for the past 30 years. There’s always a seven or eight-cent premium attached to that,” explained McTeague, noting that regions like the GTA will likely see an average of $1.80 to $1.90 at the pumps over the summer months.
“We will see, mark my words, $2 a litre on several days throughout the summer this year.”
McTeague says that many factors are compounding the price at the pumps, from a weak Canadian dollar and less investment in traditional fuel sources.
But he warns that summer prices could be driven even higher should there be any other disruptions to fuel production or distribution globally, such as a hurricane or pipeline disruptions.
“We’re into a new era,” he said. “The Canadian dollar is not responding to higher oil prices, a function of the fact that we’re not building pipelines to markets that desperately need Canadian oil and we have tax upon tax that has been heaped on… all of these things are contributing to make a bad situation worse.”
This story has been updated to display Saturday's expected gas price hike in the Greater Toronto Area in cents per litre.
Air Canada has paused a new seat selection fee for travellers booked on the lowest fares just days after implementing it.
An ongoing municipal strike, court battles and revolt by half of council has prompted the province to oust the mayor and council in Black River-Matheson.
Three officers on a U.S. Marshals Task Force serving a warrant for a felon wanted for possessing a firearm were killed and five other officers were wounded in a shootout Monday at a North Carolina home, police said.
A Calgary elementary school principal has been charged with possession of child pornography, authorities announced Monday.
The Vancouver Island Health Authority is downplaying what staff describe as a cockroach infestation in a medical unit of Saanich Peninsula Hospital.
Toronto police say 12 people are facing a combined 102 charges in connection with an investigation into a major credit fraud scheme.
One of the winners of a historic US$1.3 billion Powerball jackpot last month is an immigrant from Laos who has had cancer for eight years and had his latest chemotherapy treatment last week.
Britney Spears and her father Jamie Spears will avoid what could have been a long, ugly and revealing trial with a settlement of the lingering issues in the court conservatorship that controlled her life and financial decisions for nearly 14 years.
The clock is ticking ahead of the deadline to file a 2023 income tax return. A personal finance expert explains why you should get them done -- even if you owe more than you can pay.
Since 1932, Montreal's Henri Henri has been filled to the brim with every possible kind of hat, from newsboy caps to feathered fedoras.
Police in Oak Bay, B.C., had to close a stretch of road Sunday to help an elephant seal named Emerson get safely back into the water.
Out of more than 9,000 entries from over 2,000 breweries in 50 countries, a handful of B.C. brews landed on the podium at the World Beer Cup this week.
Raneem, 10, lives with a neurological condition and liver disease and needs Cholbam, a medication, for a longer and healthier life.
The lawyer for a residential school survivor leading a proposed class-action defamation lawsuit against the Catholic Church over residential schools says the court action is a last resort.
Mounties in Nanaimo, B.C., say two late-night revellers are lucky their allegedly drunken antics weren't reported to police after security cameras captured the men trying to steal a heavy sign from a downtown business.
A property tax bill is perplexing a small townhouse community in Fergus, Ont.
When identical twin sisters Kim and Michelle Krezonoski were invited to compete against some of the world’s most elite female runners at last week’s Boston Marathon, they were in disbelief.
The giant stone statues guarding the Lions Gate Bridge have been dressed in custom Vancouver Canucks jerseys as the NHL playoffs get underway.