Gas prices dipped below a dollar per litre at some Calgary gas stations this week, with Alberta seeing the biggest decline in the cost to fuel up across the country. “You can get nothing for a dollar nowadays,” said Jason Prosofski, who was pleasantly surprised to fill up for just shy of a dollar a litre at the Tempo on Bow Trail S.W. on Wednesday. The average price for regular gasoline is $1.19 per litre in the city, according to GasBuddy—the lowest seen since 2021. “A lot of this is seasonal in nature. Canadians are starting to drive less as temperatures get colder, the switchover to cheaper winter gasoline is also helping. In addition, the price of oil falling below $60 a barrel, which is bringing in some of the lowest gas prices we’ve seen in several years,” said Patrick De Haan, a petroleum analyst at GasBuddy. De Haan said prices typically fall in the fall, but drivers in Calgary can expect to see the decline continue. “I do think that prices may have more room to decline in the weeks ahead. Traditionally, gas prices usually reach their yearly lows in a window between about November and December, so we’re in mid-October. We’re getting close to potentially seeing a bottom, but I think there’s more room to go,” he said. Prices in Calgary are roughly $0.19 a litre cheaper than this time last year, due in large part to the removal of the consumer carbon tax. “It’s really the biggest part of why gas prices today are so much lower than last year—it’s the carbon tax pause. We haven’t really felt the full effects of low oil prices, which have just developed here in the last week,” De Haan said. The price of oil has dropped significantly since 2022, due in large part to geopolitical tensions, the global economy and OPEC’s decision to increase production. West Texas Intermediate was trading for less than $60 a barrel on Wednesday, and the declining prices across North America are having a large impact on Alberta’s finances. “It means we’re going to have to weather it, and I don’t think it’s going to be much better next year either,” said Finance Minister Nate Horner. In August, the province projected a $6.5-billion deficit for 2025-26 due to falling oil prices and global uncertainty, which is $1.3 billion higher than what was projected in the spring budget. The government budgeted oil at roughly $68 dollars a barrel in the spring budget and in the government’s first-quarter fiscal update moved it to $63.75. “It’s very impactful. … I don’t think you want to react quickly and try to respond in your budget lines to fluctuating oil prices, but we do have to be aware of the trend and understand that we’re likely in this for a couple of years,” Horner said. Horner said the drop in resource revenue will make it difficult to present a balanced budget in 2026-27. “Alberta will probably need a little bit of luck on their side with the price of oil to land that. But that’s our goal right now,” he said. “A lot of it is going to be (staying) the course. … We have to control the things that are in our control.”
